Amazon reportedly used a secret algorithm to jack up prices — A new report details Amazon’s Project Nessie pricing algorithm::Amazon deployed a secret algorithm to gauge how high it could raise prices before its competitors stopped increasing their prices as well.
The article doesnt talk about changing prices based on demand, it is about changing prices based on competitors' prices.
And yea, if Target increased their prices when Amazon increased, then they would just all be higher. Then they could do it another round and another round until one of the companies decided they were at the limit.
If the two companies talked to each other about this, it would be illegal collusion. But instead they have code automate it without an explicit conversation, which may not be illegal but certainly makes our lives worse.
This isn't an interconnected two way API/algorithm. There is no collusion here. That requires a two way communication and agreement. Amazon is taking public data and automating what every company out there already does.
At best Amazon will get pegged if they are using internal pricing data, but they likely are using publicly available data from the site to avoid that.
Amazon gets sales data, not just pricing data that can be scraped.
Its the extra data they get by controlling the platform/marketplace that becomes problematic imo.
I agree that could be a sticking point, and maybe end up with a minor fine for that. Amazon (and Google+ Ms) typically are very good at separating that data. I'm not sure what Amazon would use that here.
The details are sparse, but that's not what I read they are doing here.
You have more faith in the ethical behavior of Amazon than i.
I have a feeling that, if they are separating data properly, it's not to be ethical and good. I would imagine they do this for compliance.
Amazon is pretty upfront with customer data and protects it well. You might not agree with their policy, but they've never lied to the b2b and AWS customers.