[brianwawok]

EXCLUDE Shopify. I did not bid on Shopify. I bid on "e-commerce sales"

Shopify is insisting, and in the new terms mandating, I add a "Negative search term" of Shopify to my bid for "e-commerce sales" So it would be + "e-commerce sales" - "Shopify"

> But the former, where you're actually required to suppress the results, seems anti-competitive to the point of being actionable, and is certainly not an ethical business practice.

That's fine to say, but is a small fry like me to actually do?

The actual wording in the memo is

> In order to promote a fair ecosystem and maintain competitiveness, partners may need to include ‘Shopify’ as a negative keyword in advertising campaigns that utilize pay-per-click keywords or are promoted through a search engine.

[CPLX]

I mean I do totally understand why someone would choose not to try to battle a big tech company, for sure.

But it strikes me at first glance as obviously anti-competitive, and reaching out or filing a complaint with the FTC and its international equivalents would be one starting point.

The FTC has been paying attention these days, you might actually get something moving.

[jacquesm]

He will get something moving alright: Shopify will nix his partner agreement in a heartbeat and it will never ever be re-instated.

These things are next to impossible to win for the smaller party unless you have all the time in the world and extremely deep pockets.

[CPLX]

It seems unlikely to me that simply contacting a federal regulator (while not actually breaking the TOS) would result in that kind of retaliation.

Presumably Shopify has at least one person in their general counsel’s office that’s not a complete fucking moron.