Yeah, IIRC when a bunch of large corporations got away with doing this in the 1980s and 90s, a lot of us just assumed it would keep happening. Some people have tried raising the alarm about this, but have been shouted down pretty consistently.
this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2026
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oh I just cant wait for the highest profile minor slap on the wrist of the century!
Dont worry guys well give one of the richest men in the world a 100k fine!
Yeah don’t worry. They’ll get a small fine and will appeal and drag it out for years
I could see them threatening something absurd like no longer shipping to California.
This is why you shouldn’t buy US
I cannot express enough how angry I am that people still use amazon. Major cringe when friends tell me all the shit they buy on there. I used it 10 years ago a couple times, never once since then. Its shit, slave labor, and enriches billionaires. No one forces you to use it.
Unfortunately, they are a master at driving local businesses out of money. Buying a certain pet food at my local retailer (a franchisee) would be about $30. On Amazon, it's $25 (and sometimes even $15-20, if you do the subscription discount). At the local store, I'd have to pay more and drag the stuff home on my own feet.
It's the Walmart model. A lot of the frustration is that it's a systemic problem where individuals are incentivized against their best interests and the best interests of their communities.
Because shareholders. The Line, must go up.
Thankfully (/s) Amazon has enough money that it's cheaper to bribe politicians than provide a better product. So systemic solutions are that much more difficult.
As far as distractions from the Epstein Files go, this is an exciting one.
Can't wait for them to be fined one penny for every $20B made.
Hey now, don’t get your hopes up.
They're BUSTED when someone goes to prison.
For now they're just SLAMMED
Just wait until they get BLASTED in a strongly worded email.
Well, it's California's attorney general, so better than even chance for actual punishment.
Amazon in shambles!
Quickest solution? Stop buying from Amazon. I quit cold turkey and the sky does not fall. I still buy what I need. I am sometimes saved from buying stuff that I don't really need but was easily available. Just stop buying from them. They are the evil capitalism that everyone complains about.
Not possible for some people, for example I wanted some very basic batteries (LR736), couldn't find it anywhere in the nearest big town which is already 30km away.
Should I order a pack of them from Amazon for 1.8€, should i drive 160km to go buy them, or should I buy it in another online store and pay 6€ shipping? Easy choice no?
I've been telling people to stop supporting amazon for years, but everyone seems to have their reason to keep supporting them. This hopefully will be a good enough reason for people to finally stop shopping on amazon.
I haven't bought anything from amazon in over 12 years. I find everything on the manufacturer's website or eBay. No need to ever use amazon for anything.
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Kinda suspected they were doing that. Looked at some drywall panel lifts this morning and saw one for $75. Shipping however was $247. Dropped that like a hot rivet
I mean, that makes sense to me at least. Drywall lifts aren't difficult machines, they're basically a lifting mechanism on a steel frame.
However, they are heavy and big mother fuckers, and therefore cost a ton to ship. Shipping is damned expensive, even without price fixing and gouging.
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There was a time when Amazon was not full of scummy rip-off products, when it was not playing games with prices, when it was not a cloud-computing powerhouse, and you know what happened?
That's right, they crushed their adversaries (retail shopping) and earned billions in profits. They won.
But somehow that's not enough winning, there isn't enough winning until all the value has been vacuumed up from the world.
Bezos explicitly undercut the competition for years to drive all of the competition out of business. Amazon took as much time from 1997-2016 to make as much profit as they did in 2017, which is also (not) coincidentally when they hit peak market saturation and were able to start raising their prices.
So what you're talking about was real, but it wasn't like, "back when Amazon was good", they were just preparing for what they are now. Having a huge monopoly on just about everything has always been their win condition, and they're no where near done winning.
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If America was a serious country they would break up Amazon for this AND arrest Bezos and send him to a random Supermax for corporate blackmail, mass fraud, and unfair competition. But I fear they never were.
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The only time that I use Amazon now is when I cannot get the item that I need either in the city that I live in first or another online retailer. My Amazon spending as decreased significantly since I left prime in January of 2025.
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