A consumer interest group has taken complaints about Amazon’s advertised prices to California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, demanding an investigation and saying the company is “ripping consumers off.”
Consumer Watchdog argued that “list” or “was” prices, displayed near the current price and showing the putative savings by the buyer, are often bogus and much higher than what most other retailers are charging.
“Consumer Watchdog believes Amazon and its executives are cynically flouting the law to increase sales and profits,” wrote John Simpson of Consumer Watchdog in a petition to Becerra. “A company cannot claim it’s discounting something from a certain price when virtually nobody charges that amount.”
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Amazon said the recent Consumer Watchdog complaints are “misleading.”
“We validate list prices against actual prices recently found across Amazon and other retailers,” the company said in an email. “We eliminate List Price when we believe it isn’t relevant to our customers.”
Amazon Canada was hit in January with fines of more than $750,000 from that country’s Competition Bureau over misleading prices.
In that case, the Canadian investigation found that Amazon had failed to confirm the accuracy of prices from its suppliers. Amazon made changes to the way it shows prices after the settlement, changes that went into effect at all Amazon sites, the Competition Bureau said in January.
Amazon dropped list pricing last year in some categories like groceries, and a July study by comparison-shopping site Rout found that only about 30 percent of products showed list prices, down dramatically from May, when more than 70 percent featured them.
Its clear that the correct thing to do is stop listing other prices, and let these self-appointed watchdogs whistle. Schmucks.
Yes, why aren’t they barking after car dealers and traditional publishers?
@ Al the Great and Powerful
“Yes, why aren’t they barking after car dealers and traditional publishers?”
Because they’ll get more media buzz going after Amazon?
Were the suppliers ever held culpable?
Gee, why haven’t they gone after the trad-pub big 5 for the prices they put right on the books, I mean no one ‘ever’ pays that much for them!
Or the car dealerships.
I don’t even look at list prices. I shop on Amazon for convenience, not savings. My trust in Amazon is also a big factor — because of reliability and customer service.