Amazon Prime Days ran on July 16th and 17th (at least here, in Canada).
This price jump happened a day before and ended two days later, but this item was “on sale” during those two Prime Days.
I’ve been seeing this scam far too often, especially with food items. Why isn’t this illegal yet?
Why isn’t this illegal yet?
It is illegal in some countries such as Australia but the fines for doing this is nothing compared to the money gained for doing it.
Also illegal in the EU, when posting a “sale” the price compared to must be the lowest price the outlet had for the product in the previous 30 days. So unless they want to increase the price for over 30 days, this trick isn’t going to fly.
It’s the same story in US and Canada. Illegal, but not really enforced. And when it is enforced the the penalties aren’t strong enough to be a deterrent.
For anyone with the kneejerk reaction “AMERICA BAD!” because of this, it’s against FTC regulations here in the USA, but hasn’t been enforced in 50 years.
We are allowed to sue over it, but no one does. Caveat Emptor indeed.
We are allowed to sue over it, but no one does.
SCOTUS has drastically reduced the standing allowed for class action lawsuits. The ROI on these suits is very small. So you are talking about possibly weeks or months of your life to get the nuisance value of a very small claim. And that’s assuming the court doesn’t dismiss your claim on standing or misfiling or whatever other legal hoop you need to jump through.
For anyone with the kneejerk reaction “AMERICA BAD!”
This is precisely why “AMERICA BAD!” The legal system is intentionally inaccessible to large pools of small claimants and only exists to facilitate disputes between large business interests or between wealthy private parties and the state.
And if you think the civil system is bad, wait till you find out the ratfvckery that goes on in the criminal system.
