Skip to main content

How Amazon raised prices to profit from the pandemic

 by Alex Harman

Part 7 - Amazon Calls for Federal Price Gouging Legislation
 
After two months of media reports of price gouging on its platform, Amazon publicly called for a federal price gouging law “to ensure there are no gaps in protection for consumers” and to “complement” the efforts to fight price gouging in the states.

The framework preferred by Amazon would include elements from many state statutes, including prohibitions on “unconscionable” price increases and an allowance for actual cost increases. 

The Amazon framework recommended that price gouging prohibitions go into effect whenever a federal public health or national emergency is declared. Notably, Amazon would have the prohibition apply to all levels of the supply chain rather than just retailers. 

However, the Amazon proposal would include language to clarify that the price gouging prohibition “should apply to the party who actually sets the price.” If it became law, this language would immunize Amazon from liability for price gouging by third parties that sell on its platform.

In calling for a federal price gouging statute, Amazon argues that a federal law would protect consumers where there are existing gaps in the law, “complement the great work being done by state attorneys general,” and provide clear guidance to potential price gougers as well as “honest sellers.”

The nature of online platforms which transcend state borders has made price gouging enforcement increasingly more difficult at the state level. In March, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron worked with Amazon to identify third-party sellers based in Kentucky who were engaging in price gouging of essential emergency and medical supplies, issued cease and desist orders to more than half the sellers. He issued subpoenas to six of them.

In response, the Online Merchants Guild filed a lawsuit against Cameron taking the position that the Kentucky price-control statutes are unconstitutional when applied to Kentucky merchants who sell on a national marketplace like Amazon.

A federal court in Kentucky agreed with the Online Merchants Guild, and granted a preliminary injunction against the Kentucky price gouging law finding that targeting Amazon sellers who sell on a national platform violates the U.S. Constitution under a principal called the “dormant Commerce Clause.”

Put simply, the court held that the Kentucky price gouging law is likely unconstitutional because it attempts to regulate prices outside of Kentucky. This decision ultimately could prevent any state price gouging law from applying to online sales platforms such as Amazon.

With this latest legal development, combined with the minority of states that have no price gouging protections, it is clear that a federal price gouging prohibition that augments existing state protections is urgently needed.


[1][2][3][4][5][6][8][9][10][11][12][13]


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Trump's tariffs: A unique opportunity for BRICS and the Global South to fully escape from dollar tyranny

globinfo freexchange   Does Trump know what he is doing? Well, yes and no. While many interpretate his latest move, mostly as an attempt to halt China, his main goal is to give the final blow to the neoliberal order on behalf of his oligarchs .  From this perspective, Trump's unprecedented decision to decide mass tariffs against almost everyone, was an act of strategic hit against the global free market neoliberalism, with the financial capital  at its top. And that's because this dominant-for-almost-half-century system, identifies restrictions and protectionism as major threats against its own existence. In other words, Trump acted as a commander of the capitalist faction that wants to beat its neoliberal rivals and put itself in charge, through a new transformation of capitalism into a 21st century corporate feudalism.   Concerning China, Trump's move may have some negative impact on its economy for a while, since China has chosen to partially play by the rule...

Deranged euroclowns want to revive a nazi-origin project!

globinfo freexchange   Behind the ridiculously cartoonish latest spot of the EU that gives "instructions" to the European citizens on how to deal with a major crisis during the first hours, lies a secret desire.    The deranged euroclowns of the crypto-fascist extreme center , are trying to build up a condition of consent inside the minds of Europeans, which is related to their biggest wet dream: an autonomous imperialist European army. The idea was not born suddenly because of Trump's hostile attitude against his own allies. From the early 50s, pan-European networks of neo-Nazis were created. In May 1951, the European Social Movement (MSE) was founded in Malmö, Sweden. Essentially, it was about projecting the ideology of the German SRP on a pan-European level. The MSE, which would remain active until the 1980s, proclaimed the need for Europe to emancipate itself from the divisive tutelage of the USA and the USSR, called for the defense of the “European race” against th...

Neoliberalism Needs To Go

Second Thought  

Netanyahu BRAGS About Genocide - And Our Media COVERS IT UP

Owen Jones  

Google Imports Ex Israeli Spies, The Genocide Resumes, Cruel Britannia

by Nate Bear   Part 3 - Cruel Britannia   The UK is moving ahead with large welfare cuts for disabled people, including those with cancer. On TV the other day, the UK’s health secretary Wes Streeting said that people with cancer should be in work, not at home resting. Alongside this, the government has said that to cut youth employment it will push young people to join the army. This, of course, is in the context of a massive expenditure on military weapons in the face of the Russian bogeyman.   What’s happening in the UK under a nominally centre-left Labour government is a good reminder that there is never a lesser evil if your leaders are neoliberals. Balancing the books on the backs of the poorest and most vulnerable in society is the north star of all neoliberals, whether they call themselves centrists, left wing or right wing. Cruelty is the policy and the point.    Yet the last few years have also been a good reminder that everything is a choice. Cov...

Trump Speeds Up FALL OF THE WEST With Tariff War

Owen Jones     Related:   Trump's tariffs: A unique opportunity for BRICS and the Global South to fully escape from dollar tyranny

UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese: World is watching a live genocide in Gaza and doing nothing

The New Arab   As Israel’s war on Gaza enters its 19th month, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese is sounding the alarm louder than ever: the world is watching a live genocide — and doing nothing to stop it. In an exclusive interview with The New Arab , Albanese describes the devastation in Gaza as unparalleled since WWII. Entire neighbourhoods lie in ruins, tens of thousands are dead, and 91% of Gaza’s population is at risk of malnutrition. Over 60,000 children show signs of cognitive impairment due to starvation.  “This is not just war. This is genocide in real time,” she says. “What we are seeing now is the destruction of a people who refuse to leave.” Despite UN mandates and international law, Albanese says the global system is paralysed, and governments, corporations, and even universities are complicit. “If Palestine were a crime scene, it would bear all our fingerprints.”

US Official EXPOSES Truth About Gaza From The Inside

Owen Jones  

Google Imports Ex Israeli Spies, The Genocide Resumes, Cruel Britannia

by Nate Bear   Part 2 - The genocide resumes   The day before the Wiz deal, Israel resumed its genocide of Gaza with an unhinged bloodthirsty rampage, the deadliest twenty-four hours in the last nearly eighteen months of genocide. A high bar had been set, and it was cleared. They attacked at night, itself an act of utter cowardice and sadism, and slaughtered hundreds as they slept in tents. In tents. Close to one hundred babies and young children were killed. The overall death toll exceeds 400 and is rising. As expected, there is not a flicker of condemnation from world leaders, many of whom are arming Israel with the weapons and intelligence it needs for genocide. The British air force spent the ceasefire period gathering intelligence on Palestinians and feeding it to Israel so they could restart the mass murder efficiently.  The genocide is the end of the west. It destroys any claim to moral superiority over Russia, China, Iran or any of the officially designated bad g...