subtle crushing out of all small business
Amazon just pulled some PR jujitsu (again) Amazon’s marketplace for 3rd-party sellers is huge, accounting for half of its $280B revenue in 2019 . It's also a bit of a Wild West, with counterfeit and fraudulent products galore . For years, Amazon avoided legal repercussions by holding itself as a blameless provider of services (inventory, shipping) rather than the “ seller of record. ” But the government wants to hold Amazon liable Two weeks ago, the California courts sided with a customer who sued Amazon after a faulty 3rd-party battery blew up in her face . A new bill there would make Amazon responsible for its 3rd-party sellers, a much more expensive proposition than… doing nothing. As with Facebook and Google, regulators are increasingly scrutinizing Amazon for the (physical) content on its platform. In a 4D chess move, Amazon is backing the bill In a blog post , the Seattle-based ecommerce giant writes that they share the “California legislature’s goal of keeping consumers