[jpollock]

Not saying this is right or wrong, or if it even matches up with the case, but this is what I found on price fixing. Businesses are (from my training as an engineer) generally not allowed to coordinate any behavior related to pricing with a competitor.

https://www.ftc.gov/advice-guidance/competition-guidance/gui...

Quote:

Example: A group of competing optometrists agreed not to participate in a vision care network unless the network raised reimbursement rates for patients covered by its plan. The optometrists refused to treat patients covered by the network plan, and, eventually, the company raised reimbursement rates. The FTC said that the optometrists' agreement was illegal price fixing, and that its leaders had organized an effort to make sure other optometrists knew about and complied with the agreement.

[malkuth23]

I know you are getting downvoted and a lot of gaff, but I do think you propose an interesting question. I am not sure what is illegal and what is not, but I am confident I support the strike.

So, let's say you are right. Would that make it illegal for all Uber drivers or strippers to strike? They are independent contractors, not employees. It also seems to me that these laws are created specifically to protect the consumer. Without damages, where is the crime? Even the example of the optometrists includes some theoretical damage to the consumer as the prices of their insurance could go up or the consumers had less access to eye care.

In the case of Etsy sellers though, I can not see how this could hurt consumers. Sellers are striking to lower the price of fees, which should help consumers and only hurt Etsy. I don't know the law, but I do feel like the law should be written in a way that these government agencies only act to prevent non-competitive activities that could hurt consumers.

[jdrc]

This is not a group of competitors, etsy is not 'the market', and sellers have not agreed anything to each other

[alecbz]

> This is not a group of competitors

Why do you say that, just because things sold by Etsy merchants aren't sufficiently substitutable for each other?

I think Etsy sellers are certainly less in competition with each other than say, idk, oil sellers, but I do think there is some degree of substitution between the kinds of things sold on Etsy, and so to a degree they are competitors.

> etsy is not 'the market'

So? It's a significant part of the market. A cartel influencing just one seller doesn't necessarily make it not-a-cartel.

> sellers have not agreed anything to each other

Have they not? Isn't that the whole point of the strike? Communicating to other sellers "hey how about we all do this thing together? if only a few of us do it nothing will happen, but if all of us do it we can influence Etsy".

----

If you replace the many small Etsy sellers with a smaller number of larger sellers, this starts to look very much like a cartel "bullying" a buyer. Like OPEC refusing to sell to the US unless they abide by certain policies, or something.

Like GP I don't think this is bad or anything, but it's interesting to note that cartels and strikes are kinda similar in shape, and it's more "sliding" properties (how many sellers? how big are they? how strong is the competition between them?) that differentiate them.

[jdrc]

I think they are obviously very substitutable And surely many of them are selling elsewhere and consumers aren't being forced to pay more. there doesn't seem to be a conspiracy behind it, this is a very public petition , like boycotting russia . It would be quite a stretch if this falls anywhere near anticompetitive. What's next, banning uber drivers from boycotts?

[jpollock]

Wouldn't that depend on the result of the various anti-trust suits against Amazon/Apple/Google that define the market as their marketplaces?

[jdrc]

Who knows, but etsy should be very low in that list.