Apple asked Amazon to block rival ads

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.md&#x2F;YmlLB" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.md&#x2F;YmlLB</a>

It sounds like Apple was upset about the counterfeit products being sold on Amazon and, after issuing hundreds of thousands of takedown notices threatened to sue Amazon themselves and reached an agreement where Amazon took measures to eliminate the counterfeits.<p>The knock seems to be that they only did this for Apple products, not counterfeits of say Samsung phones because they were not pressured in similar ways by Samsung.

I returned my unopened Apple Watch to Amazon.<p>Getting my money back has been a massive pain. Usually Amazon literally returns the money when the delivery person picks up the item from my doorstep.<p>But with this Amazon required a scheduled pickup with UPS, did not acknowledge receiving the item even though UPS showed it as received and a few weeks later they are still asking me to wait for 1 month before contacting them for any information.<p>Well, I filed a chargeback with my credit card and automagically the errors in their system got resolved, and the item shows as received (on the correct date 2+ weeks ago), and they are promising a refund in a week (as opposed to 2.5 more weeks).<p>Looks like they’re not just giving Apple preferential treatment but going out of their way to protect Apple.

The business insider title is click bait. They asked Amazon to remove counterfeit ads from their when searching for Apple products.<p>Honestly, this should be done for every major brand.

If it&#x27;s true they colluded to remove ads from Apple pages on Amazon, both companies deserve what they get. Why do it sneakily? Why not have a page somewhere on Amazon that says &quot;hey, if you want us to remove ads from your product listings, pay us [10x the total lifetime amount we expect to get in ad revenue from running ads on the page] per product page&quot;. Most companies wouldn&#x27;t do it, so it wouldn&#x27;t change Amazon&#x27;s model much at all. Meanwhile, Apple could afford it trivially. While sleazy, it would be a completely legal offering that would never come back to bite them in the butt.

Dumb question: why is this <i>not</i> allowed?<p>Presumably, Apple paid Amazon to reduce the number of ads.<p>What&#x27;s so wrong about that?<p>All companies allow large enterprise customers (who drive high revenue), to have custom &#x2F; tailored offerings based on their requests.

you have to wonder what sort of collusion <i>isn&#x27;t</i> being uncovered. After all, when you <i>catch</i> someone doing something unethical, it is often the tip of the iceberg. It would be very easy for two tech execs to communicate privately and come to an agreement like &quot;Stop investing in Bing and we&#x27;ll stop investing in GSuite.&quot;<p>We&#x27;ve been through a long period of stagnation from big tech companies, often blamed on cultural problems in a maturing industry. What if the real story is a level of cartelisation far beyond anything revealed so far?

While I get the principle at play here, it’s pretty hard to get mad at Apple for getting Amazon to show fewer ads.

I get annoyed any time I search for a brand term and get competitors&#x27; ads. If I wanted to see a variety of smartphones, I wouldn&#x27;t have searched for &quot;iphone.&quot; My only issue is you have to be Apple-big to do this.

How is this any different than Apple having its own wood-and-steel display area in Best Buy?

&gt; As detailed by today’s report, the agreement between Apple and Amazon includes a carveout that reduces the number of ads and recommendations that appear on product pages for Apple devices. While Amazon product pages are generally full of ads, sponsored results, and recommendations, Apple’s product pages show only one banner ad at the very bottom of the page.<p>&gt; In contrast, product pages for Apple competitors like Samsung are riddled with ads from competitors, recommendations, and other sponsored banners. Insider says that other companies, including Samsung, have complained about the preferential treatment given to Apple.

&gt; In contrast, product pages for Apple competitors like Samsung are riddled with ads from competitors, recommendations, and other sponsored banners. Insider says that other companies, including Samsung, have complained about the preferential treatment given to Apple.<p>You shouldn&#x27;t be allowed to place ads against another company&#x27;s product listings or trademarked brands.<p>You shouldn&#x27;t be able to pay Google to advertise and gain search placement ahead of another company&#x27;s trademarked brands, either.

Disclaimer: I used to work for Amazon for many years.<p>Context: It’s been a few years but I built many of these counterfeit detecting systems from greenfield. Including the early architecture integrations with the ads teams.<p>AMA (I can’t always say everything, but I’ll answer to my best ability in the morning)

Retailer and vendor make a contractual deal to merchandise product. Is your grocery store colluding with CocaCola to display their products right at the front of the store while putting healthy items like milk far away!!?? Are they harming the health of your children?? Is this just a conspiracy to make greedy dentists richer?? More news at 11

What exactly is the consumer harm here supposed to be?

I had no idea Apple got preferential treatment. I have never seen what I thought to be a genuine Apple product on Amazon. I assumed Apple was taking steps to prevent anyone from selling anything Apple-branded there. The fact that they&#x27;re doing the opposite is just crazy to me.<p>I looked more closely and they don&#x27;t seem to sell iPhones, which is I guess where I get the impression from. Their other items have weird prices that are different from the Apple Store, which also screamed &quot;scam&quot; to me. But I guess not?

Amazon knows all about of the garbage being sold on its site but only does something about it if you&#x27;re a massive tech company who threatens to sue, very cool.<p>I wonder how many of these thumb drives are legit. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;s?k=2+tb+thumb+drive&amp;crid=YZ410MSN6L13&amp;sprefix=2+tb+thumb+driv%2Caps%2C71" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;s?k=2+tb+thumb+drive&amp;crid=YZ410MSN6L1...</a>

Both Apple and Amazon are very important for national security. I wouldn&#x27;t be surprised if there is more going on here then just preferential treatment.