Current Events > How the fuck is creating fake sales not illegal

(+) Yeah! (+)

Amazon is doing it tons for prime day, but this is a practice as old as time that somehow still doesn't get punished.

Take an item, don't change the price, but create a fake "original price" and say the actual original price is discounted from it.

It's blatant false advertising.

Somehow before even clicking this topic i knew it was about Amazon

They're just that much of a scam.

Its technically not illegal because youre not swindling them out of any money, youre just creating a false sense of value and a good deal I better jump on now, which is entirely at the discretion of the consumer whether or not its worth the sale price. Its why things are $9.99 instead of $10 because your brain thinks less than $10.

flussence posted...

Somehow before even clicking this topic i knew it was about Amazon

They're just that much of a scam.

I'm more flabbergasted how it hasn't been outlawed given how blatantly deceptive it is, and how old the practice is.

I've seen jewelry store ads that actually have the disclaimer

*original price does not imply sales at this price

A lot of grocery stores will nearly double the price of an item but put a "buy 1 get 1 free" label underneath to trick you into buying it.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/9/0/AASSvUAAEpoS.jpg

https://youtu.be/dkLeHJ1I-9g

Close enough. That episode has a part where that guy actually makes items more expensive and then announces to the customers that its on sale lol

MrKapowski posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/9/0/AASSvUAAEpoS.jpg

What you're missing is that when the Black Friday sale ends, the regular price is now $1099. This sort of thing is often done to hide price hikes.

RuneterranSnap posted...

Amazon is doing it tons for prime day, but this is a practice as old as time that somehow still doesn't get punished.

Take an item, don't change the price, but create a fake "original price" and say the actual original price is discounted from it.

It's blatant false advertising.

If I recall isnt such a thing actually illegal in much of the EU? Could be wrong though.

Of course it goes without saying its legal in the United States of Corporate America.

Dark_Arbron posted...

If I recall isnt such a thing actually illegal in much of the EU? Could be wrong though.

Of course it goes without saying its legal in the United States of Corporate America.

This makes sense

Ohhhh. Changing prices. Anyone else think fake sales meant misreporting revenue? Basically the scheme that Ryan did on The Office. The latter is indeed illegal.

Prime day is not a discount event. It is a marketing event.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


I've used camel in the past, and they have been quite reliable

https://camelcamelcamel.com/

Because these companies have an army of expensive lawyers and trying to prove they do it is apparently difficult? But I just don't shop at Amazon because it's basically more expensive wish.com or AliExpress at this point.

AuthenticZac posted...

I've used camel in the past, and they have been quite reliable

https://camelcamelcamel.com/

It's great when it works, but I've been noticing a lot of items (that I know have been around for a long time) having their history reduced to only go as far back as maybe 2022 (or even this year) to make comparisons difficult. I think amazon might create a new ID for an item to trip up the tracking.

Dark_Arbron posted...

If I recall isnt such a thing actually illegal in much of the EU? Could be wrong though.

Of course it goes without saying its legal in the United States of Corporate America.

Certain varieties of it are. I know falsely advertising a limited time price as a pressure tactic is illegal.

On the other hand, sometimes the consumer protections in the EU go a bit too far and harm other consumers. The example that comes to mind is WoT not banning players for cheating because doing so would require them to refund all the money those players had spent on premium tanks.

Naysaspace posted...

Ohhhh. Changing prices. Anyone else think fake sales meant misreporting revenue?

It's ambiguous with Amazon because they've also got a well-earned reputation for selling counterfeit products and for letting sellers pull literal bait and switch scams.

You guys should know about this Chinese style online marketing.

They put another item to make the price much cheaper on thumbnails.
For example, they priced a phone for $1000 but they put a "phone cover only" on the variation list at $10. That way on the item lists it looks like the phone is priced at $10 before you actually clicked on the page.

totalnerdken posted...

Idk if this is what you meant by bait and switch.

But I know a lot of sellers will sell a high quality product with no profit margins just long enough to get some positive reviews. Then switch out the product and description to something else entirely. So a shit product will have those reviews attached to it. So sometimes when you go and read the reviews, it won't make any sense to you.

Yeah that's exactly what i was referring to. They're just completely fine with that and for some unholy reason every regulatory body on earth seems to be too.