Former Nintendo Executive Says Amazon Once Requested 'Illegal' Price Discounts
- Reference: 0183113532
- News link: https://games.slashdot.org/story/26/05/03/1826206/former-nintendo-executive-says-amazon-once-requested-illegal-price-discounts
- Source link:
> "Amazon was looking to get bigger into the video game space," said Fils-Aimé. "Amazon's mentality back then is they wanted to have the lowest price out in the marketplace, even lower than Walmart... Essentially what Amazon wanted (was an) obscene amount of support, financial support, so they could have the lowest price and beat Walmart. I literally said to the executive, 'You know that's illegal, right? I can't do that'...."
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> At the time, the Wii and DS were Nintendo's best selling hardware in history. Amazon originally sold books, but in the 2000s rapidly expanded with cheaper discounts to became a one-stop shop for almost everything. Everything except Nintendo, that is.... "Literally we stopped selling to Amazon," Fils-Aimé continued, "and it's because I wasn't going to do something illegal. I wasn't going to do something that would put at risk the relationship we have with other retailers."
"The two sides have since [3]made amends ," [4]notes the Verge , "and you can buy a Switch 2 through Amazon. But for a long time, Nintendo consoles had been [5]largely unavailable on the site."
[1] https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2761065620
[2] https://kotaku.com/reggie-fils-aime-says-nintendo-stopped-selling-to-amazon-after-being-asked-to-break-the-law-2000692699
[3] https://nintendoeverything.com/new-details-allegedly-revealed-about-nintendo-and-amazons-dispute/
[4] https://www.theverge.com/games/922840/reggie-fils-aime-amazon-nintendo-illegal
[5] https://nintendoeverything.com/nintendo-amazon-wii-ds-relationship/
Wal Mart is Da Bomb (Score:3)
For anyone wondering, Fils-Aimé is referring to the 2001 Wal Mart is Da Bomb bill, which clearly states that no retailer is allowed to beat Wal Mart prices.
Nintendo (Score:2)
lecturing others on ethics and morality.
Re: (Score:2)
What's the alternative: I've murdered 17 people, so l will be your murder buddy?
Nintendo's scorched-earth policy might not be moral but it is legal: The law allows them to punish people using Nintendo's IP a little too cleverly.
Re: (Score:2)
Sounds more like they are simply refusing to allow Nintendo products to be used for something that is illegal?
And I am guessing what you would consider 'unethical' by nintendo is also them refusing to allow Nintendo products to be used for something that's illegal?
Seems pretty consistent to me.
How many did? (Score:3)
In a world where regulators do their job, this should have been a giant flag that a thorough investigation into Amazon's practices were warranted. Because I'd expect for every nintendo, there were 100 others who bent over.
Re: (Score:3)
It's even worse than you think.
Read what happens to your Amazon listing if you advertise your product on another site for even 1 penny less.
[1]https://www.theguardian.com/us... [theguardian.com]
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/apr/16/amazon-price-fixing-california-lawsuit
Take a bite out of THAT DELICIOUS LOOKING PIE (Score:1)
McGruff, The Crime Dog, is SHOCKED at how much this pays. Shocked!
Handover Phist, you say? (Score:1)
I mean it's so stunningly obvious that amazon is up to their ass in illegal shit you'd have to be a total luddite to not realize it. Everything they've "banned" is still available on the site somewhere, their inventory at this point seems to exclusively include unlabelled returns which don't work; the last thing I bought was an electric drill with no battery, no wire, and no port... fraud is the name of the game Amazon's playing, and those slaps on the wrist are chump change compared to what they're raking
Illegal? (Score:3)
Why would it be illegal to give them a discount? I understand not wanting to undermine the relationship with the other vendors, but illegal?
Re:Illegal? (Score:5, Informative)
> Why would it be illegal to give them a discount? I understand not wanting to undermine the relationship with the other vendors, but illegal?
Discounts are fine.Companies collaborating with each other to fix prices is not. [1]Price Fixing per the FTC [ftc.gov] :
> Price fixing is an agreement (written, verbal, or inferred from conduct) among competitors to raise, lower, maintain, or stabilize prices or price levels. Generally, the antitrust laws require that each company establish prices and other competitive terms on its own, without agreeing with a competitor.
It's the difference between "let's do a discount" and "let's always be cheaper for this product anywhere, but only on this platform"
[1] https://www.ftc.gov/advice-guidance/competition-guidance/guide-antitrust-laws/dealings-competitors/price-fixing
Re: (Score:2)
I think the word not mentioned is "kick-back" (to Amazon) but it would effectively be a discount, with Nintendo choosing to sell to Amazon at a loss or to inflate its prices to all other retailers. The latter option, chosen by so many manufacturers, is a type of price-fixing (One retailer is more popular because the manufacturer enforces an arbitrary difference in price.) which is illegal.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Just answering your literal question rather than advocating for whether this is right or wrong:
The 1936 Robinson-Patman Act "prohibits price discrimination, preventing sellers from charging different prices to different buyers for goods of 'like grade and quality' if it harms competition."
It's extremely rarely enforced, but ... there you go. You can read more at [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson%E2%80%93Patman_Act
Re: (Score:2)
> if it harms competition
This must be the sticking point.
Supply houses to the various trades (in America) charge each customer a different price, mostly based on annual purchases.
Re: (Score:2)
Illegal abuse of monopoly power by an EVIL company. My second and final Amazon purchase was decades ago because the evil was too obvious. Simple example:
"Be a shame if something happened to this potential bestseller because you didn't give us a better price than that..."
Publishers used to profit from bestsellers and lose money on the large majority of books they published. Amazon broke that system. Not a perfect system, but a lot of good books got published on the (slim) hope they might become a bestseller.