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Comment by blowski | Hacker News Reader

If I opened a shop on the high street selling fake hard drives I’d be shut down. Why does Amazon get a pass simply because they’re doing it at scale?

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Where I live in the US there are flea markets with stalls selling fake electronics like they have on Amazon. Neither the stalls nor the flea markets get shut down.

But is Amazon a flea market or a mall?

> If I opened a shop on the high street selling fake hard drives I’d be shut down

so who's doing the shutting down?

The law, which applies to everyone except companies like Amazon for some reason.

What law?

Trademark, FCC and other safety regulations etc

I would really hope the US has some consumer protection laws. If it doesn't, they should address that.

Are these fake items also accessible from the EU? I'd expect the EU wouldn't take kindly to these sort of scams.

Well, they do show up in UK Amazon, page 2 of results after searching for "portable SSD"

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mobile-External-Portable-Storage-La...

Yes. I searched for 16TB SSD drive” on UK Amazon, and quite a few £90 models matching the description were there.

I routinely see reviews on German Amazon complaining about products lacking legally required certification or safety features. Those products continue being sold on Amazon. My guess is that for every product that gets shut down another pops up and Amazon drags its heels when confronted.

IANAL but it's fraud, which is a federal crime in the USA.

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/topics/truth-advertising

It looks like our best hope is market forces, as people stop buying from Amazon after seeing this constant drip-feed of Amazon's poor quality control.

I never stumbled across one of those offerings, but are those fake SSDs sold by Amazon or by a marketplace vendor? Because Amazon's management of its marketplace can only be described as hands-off at best, but legally they are not the seller.

How many people say "Oh no, I didn't buy this from Amazon, I bought it from Amazon _Marketplace_"? I've never heard anyone say it, so perhaps it's a rather technical distinction.

Amazon is paid to list it (they're "sponsored listings"), store it, deliver it, and profits from the sale. I think we can hold them accountable for the sale. It's somewhat akin to how "handling stolen goods" is just as much a crime as stealing them in the first place. If Amazon can't guarantee what they're selling, they shouldn't be selling it.

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