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by aphexbr 3243 days ago
"Isn't that the sort of thing that we have anti-trust laws for?"

I might be wrong, but the way I understand it is that anti-trust relates to abuse of a monopoly position, not the monopoly position itself. So, if Amazon were doing things to force Nike to sell through them or get less money elsewhere, they'd be in violation. However, simply being so big that Nike would lose lots of money by not selling there is not.

To put it another way, if I make a video and I decide that I don't want it on YouTube for whatever reason, Google aren't guilty of anti-trust if I then realise that I'm losing a lot of money by not having it there. They're simply the dominant player with the most customers. If, however, Google did something to reduce my revenue from other sources if I don't also have it on YouTube, they would be guilty of anti-trust.

Flawed analogy and IANAL, etc., but that's my understanding.
1 comments
eridius 3243 days ago
> So, if Amazon were doing things to force Nike to sell through them

Such as buying up Nike products from other sellers so that way Amazon can still sell Nike whether Nike likes it or not?

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detaro 3243 days ago
That doesn't force Nike to do anything, and Nike gets properly paid for each product sold. Trademark aspects likely are covered by the first-sale doctrine (=as long as you actually sell legit Nike products, you can advertise them as such).
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eridius 3243 days ago
Amazon's saying "Hey Nike, you'll be selling through us whether you like it or not". And it's forcing Nike to actually explicitly sell through Amazon if they want to retain any control whatsoever over the product listings.
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detaro 3243 days ago
Sure, but that's the same with every other reseller: if you want more control over how they sell your things, you need to make a deal with them about it. Just because a seller is larger than others it's not suddenly a monopoly abuse if they legally resell your product. Saying "I don't want you to resell my stuff" is generally speaking not a right you have as a manufacturer (you might have leverage to stop misleading advertisement or misrepresentation of the product though).
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