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News & ArtsWednesday, December 28, 2011
Tech / Books Did Amazon.com Screw Over a Partner?
Posted by Paul Constant on Wed, Dec 28, 2011 at 12:59 PM
Gawker tells us of a new lawsuit filed against Amazon.com by a company that produces popular Kindle cases:
A federal lawsuit filed Thursday by M-Edge Accessories LLC accuses Amazon of all manner of bullying. According to M-Edge, it agreed in Nov. 2009 to pay Amazon a roughly 15 percent commission for the right to sell Kindle cases. That deal was supposed to last three years, but after two months, M-Edge says, Amazon demanded 32 percent and threatened to take M-Edge cases off its website if the company refused. M-Edge refused. About a year and a half later, Amazon demanded it agree to the onerous new terms, this time threatening to bury M-Edge in Amazon search results where "no one will be able to find you." With Amazon providing 90 percent of the company's revenue, it agreed, shelling out $6.5 million in additional fees.
After all that happened? According to the suit, Amazon just went ahead and basically ripped off the design for M-Edge's Kindle cases anyway, relegating the company's cases to a non-preferred place on their site, before making them unavailable on Amazon.com altogether. And M-Edge was paying for preferred placement! It's funny, because this story reminds me of something an independent bookstore tried to pull a couple of years back...oh, no, wait. No it doesn't. Because if this story is at all true, this is total fucking bullshit.
1
you may want to consider deleting your last three sentences because they make absolutely no sense.
2
I was thinking of getting a new Kindle but wanted to get the M-Edge cover for it at the same time only to find the Kindle didn't have one, just the cheap thing Amazon sells with it. Guess I won't buy a Kindle afterall...time to get me an iPad
4
Wow... tactics right out of the Walmart playbook. Squeeze the fuck out of the suppliers, then squash them like bugs.
Unfettered capitalism, it's a wonderful thing.
Unfettered capitalism, it's a wonderful thing.
8
As an occasional customer of Amazon this pisses me off on a personal level. I normally shop at Amazon when I can't find something at a brick-and-mortar store (which happens often), but if Amazon is deliberately hiding results or lying about availability, I have no reason to continue buying from them.
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I have bought two Kindle cases so far...one a soft zippered Case Logic, that is a bit oversized and the other hardcover one with a strap that makes it look like I'm coming to your door to sell you The Watchtower.
I still haven't found what I'm looking for in $79 Kindle cases.
I still haven't found what I'm looking for in $79 Kindle cases.
11
Jesus Christ am I tired of Paul pissing on Amazon. You should be screaming at consumers NOT Amazon. You should be pissed off at barnes and noble/borders for starting this trend in the 90's. You should not assume you know the intricate details of a buisness deal from a fucking rumor.
Hell, your last sentance makes this entire piece moot becoming just another "Paul Hates Amazon" post. Its lame and unorigional. Stop POSTING ON A BLOG ON THE INTERNET about how much you hate technology and tech companies. Its makes you look like an idiot and make The Stranger look incompetent for having a book reviewer who refuses to embrace the new way of reading books.
Hell, your last sentance makes this entire piece moot becoming just another "Paul Hates Amazon" post. Its lame and unorigional. Stop POSTING ON A BLOG ON THE INTERNET about how much you hate technology and tech companies. Its makes you look like an idiot and make The Stranger look incompetent for having a book reviewer who refuses to embrace the new way of reading books.
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@11, Paul doesn't just hate Amazon, he hates everybody and every thing. I've mostly quit reading anything he writes; I don't need that amount of negativity in my life.
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@11 - This isn't about a new way of reading books, or even technology. It shows (if true) that Amazon can't be trusted in business dealings, so I don't quite follow your rant.
Shit like this makes me glad I turned down a job there, because I'd hate to be ashamed of where I work.
Shit like this makes me glad I turned down a job there, because I'd hate to be ashamed of where I work.
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@12 Me thinks you're onto something.
@13 Is your point to show that you turned down a great job opportunity or just that you blindly follow what Paul writes? Amazon is a corporation so why are you trusting it at all? Also, the last sentence in the post says "If this is true" which shows that Paul is just taking the opportunity to use technology to piss on Amazon, a large tech company based in Seattle (again).
Reading comprehension is hard y'all!
@13 Is your point to show that you turned down a great job opportunity or just that you blindly follow what Paul writes? Amazon is a corporation so why are you trusting it at all? Also, the last sentence in the post says "If this is true" which shows that Paul is just taking the opportunity to use technology to piss on Amazon, a large tech company based in Seattle (again).
Reading comprehension is hard y'all!
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Yup, you definitely can't buy M-ware cases on Amazon in the Kindle store. There's only like three models: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=bl_sr_fiona-…
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Who knows if this story is true, and I do wish they gave more substabtially to local nonprofits and national charities, but Amazon HQ is an awesome place to work these days. Smart, passionate people, true meritocracy, no corporate BS, beautiful campus, good wages and benefits, and dogs are welcome. Even pitbulls.
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@12: True, Paul is a card carrying member of the league of the perpetually outraged. And he lacks the perspective to note subtle differences like $60m in profit versus $7.2B in profit when comparing corporate philanthropy.
But it's kind of fun to read his posts and imagine this guy with steam coming out of his ears, banging away on his latest screed, thinking that anyone actually cares what an unhinged and willfully ignorant martinet writes. Or is that just me?
But it's kind of fun to read his posts and imagine this guy with steam coming out of his ears, banging away on his latest screed, thinking that anyone actually cares what an unhinged and willfully ignorant martinet writes. Or is that just me?
18
Now now now now...Paul Constant is totally thrilled and positive about anything Obama does. No matter how right-wingy the President's actions turn out to be. Paul LOVES Obama...no matter what.
So you see, Paul IS positive about one thing!
So you see, Paul IS positive about one thing!
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I get my e-books via the library, on a non-Kindle branded tablet. (I don't want to be locked down to a single company.) Lets face it. All big companies do this sort of thing. Even The Apple God has done more than it's share of questionable business practices. (Using a slave driven to the point of being suicidal workforce to save a few bucks is one the pops to the top of my head.)
I agree. Supporting small local businesses is good. I do frequent local establishments, but it's time to face reality. Bound books, news papers, magazines and other such forms of physical media aren't much longer for this world, at least not in mass quantities we have now. Schools will find it's cheaper to issue an e-reader and load it with whatever books a child will need rather than buying and storing huge quantities of paper books. We don't read on stone tablets anymore either.
Also, paper not only generates a lot of refuse in and of itself, but it's manufacture creates quite a bit of pollution as well.
I agree. Supporting small local businesses is good. I do frequent local establishments, but it's time to face reality. Bound books, news papers, magazines and other such forms of physical media aren't much longer for this world, at least not in mass quantities we have now. Schools will find it's cheaper to issue an e-reader and load it with whatever books a child will need rather than buying and storing huge quantities of paper books. We don't read on stone tablets anymore either.
Also, paper not only generates a lot of refuse in and of itself, but it's manufacture creates quite a bit of pollution as well.
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If Amazon did what the suit claims, they should suffer the consequences. I did a little checking. As of right now, there are 10 M-Edge Kindle covers available on Amazon, and they come up with compatible Kindles. (There are about three dozen companies that make Kindle covers.) None of the M-Edge covers look particularly innovative, and many companies make covers with built in lights. I don't own a Kindle. (I do like the free Kindle app for reading library books though, but again it was free.) I don't have any allegiance to Amazon, or to any other big company for that matter, but this disagreement is far from cut and dry. I doubt M-Edge, (a local company for me here in Maryland.) has a case, (Pun intended) but if their claims are true, then I hope they get properly compensated.
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@17: Except that that's part of the problem, isn't it? Amazon is gleefully burning the industry to the ground by generally offering wholesale pricing. Calling them out upon aspects of that (such as their lack of community contribution) seems to be a completely fair criticism of their business practices.
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