[greenonions]

Could you provide any example where discounting was actually proved to be predatory pricing?

How is discounting not a valid method of pricing?

[maxsilver]

Flooding a market with below-cost goods (or "discounts"), to drive out competitors so that you can generate a monopoly, is predatory pricing -- literally by textbook definition. It's also illegal, it is a direct violation of US federal anti-trust law.

https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/competition-guidance/guide-a...

No one is against "discounting" (as in, coupons for Cheerios, or discounts for bulk orders). But illegal predatory pricing is often passed through the economy under the disguise of "a discount", and it's correct for people to challenge that.

[greenonions]

It most certainly is illegal, but can you find a definitive example of such behavior?

It's theoretically a highly illegal and unethical thing to do, but in reality, monopoly control of a market is highly unlikely.

[maxsilver]

I mean, one textbook example of that behaviour is late-90's-Microsoft --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Cor....

Amazon's behaviour today is another example of it, but since we haven't really enforced any anti-trust laws in the past decade, it would be easy for someone to claim Amazon "doesn't count".