It's insane that the landlord of the mall is also running the biggest store in the mall
It's led to this scheme, but also just the general enshittification of buying things online. You can never trust what you buy from Amazon because their "marketplace sellers" will send you a counterfeit, and it's hard to find some brand names because they don't want to be in that cesspool
As low rent and lowest common denominator as Walmart was in the 90s, at least I could go in and know that a) I probably was getting the lowest price on that Rubbermaid trash can b) it was legitimately a Rubbermaid trashcan and not someone who ripped off the molds, used plastic that was 50% as good, and sells it under the brand Xyxldk, and c) could reasonably expect to find that trashcan offered for sale in the first place
- Central and Aeon own malls;
- Tesco owns multi-story shopping complexes including banking, retail, fast food, etc;
- and for that matter, Walmart, Target, Costco, and some grocery stores in the US operate multiple smaller businesses inside, eg banks or fast food.
It’s really not that uncommon for a corporation to operate part of their commercial space as a subsidiary marketplace.
Why amazon sellers have not opened up a class action lawsuit is beyond me. This case, succeed or fail will surface enough documentation that they may find cause.
The fact that lawsuits are won by whoever has more money and time is so deeply problematic. I have no idea how you’d go about equalizing it. Spending limits with devastating consequences if it can be proven that you broke them?
it works reasonably well.
* More juries, and maybe something jury like for civil suits.
* Simplify the law and legal proceedings to the point where the extra time preparing won’t lead to better outcomes.
Juries are available for civil suits, but most parties prefer not to have them because jury results have high variability. I'm following a case, currently pending appeal, where the jury found against the defendants for breach of contract, but awarded $0 in damages, so there's no actual relief regarding the breach.
This way everyone is on equal footing. Doesn't matter if you're a homeless bum or Jeff Bezos. Both just get an appointed lawyer.
If a suit is found frivolous, you are on the hook for the costs, as long as it's reasonable it's paid for by the state and if a party is found at fault they may also be required to cover the costs.
This is happening constantly with the private label brands you see in major stores. There is no CFPB needed here, Amazon has no obligation to carry your product and can dump you anytime. Why would CFPB get involved?
Some of you are just ridiculous with “get gubbermint involved” on everything. If you want to combat this then don’t buy from Amazon, we don’t need CFPB.