Amazon destroys Marketplace pricing parity policy across Europe
We all know Amazon runs a very successful Marketplace alongside its online retails allowing third parties to sell their own goods under the Company banner, but there are also strict rules and policies that must be followed.
Amazon have now agreed to drop a clause which banned third-party traders from selling products cheaper anywhere else, following the intervention of the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). It has being said the policy could be resulting in higher fees for selling items online, deterring new competitors, and directly affecting prices for consumers.
Amazon wouldn’t drop such a policy unless it knew the writing was on the wall and they would be forced to kill it soon anyway. From today, traders across the EU can choose to set different pricing on Amazon without consequence, meaning more competition within the online retail market, which in turn is better for consumers. There are about 2m third-party traders using Amazon throughout the world, In the runup to last Christmas, almost two in five items bought on the site were sold by small traders.
The online giant was also among several US corporations criticised for avoiding taxes in the UK in the last two years. The company paid £2.4million tax last year despite a revenue of £4billion.
The company has recently imposed £10 minimum order to qualify for its ‘Free Super Saver Delivery’. With exceptions like- orders which include books, DVDs, Blu-rays, music, video games and software products are still eligible for free delivery regardless of total order cost.
Last month Amazon announced a surprise dip in earnings as it swung to a loss of $7million (£4.5million) for the second quarter of the year, down from a $7million profit for the same period of last year.
For US traders, the parity pricing remains in place and seems unlikely to change unless a similar investigation is started against it. Who knows whats next on the Amazon to do list.
Amazon destroys Marketplace pricing parity policy across Europe
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