US: Consumer Watchdog says Amazon’s price lists are bogus

The California-based Consumer Watchdog group claims Amazon is misleading its customers by posting inflated list prices to give the impression the company is offering more of a discount.

The nonprofit public-interest group filed a petition to Calif. Attorney General Xavier Becerra on Monday, claiming Amazon is violating state and federal law because, Consumer Watchdog said based on its own study in February, many products Amazon’s website feature list prices that are greater than the existing market price.

“The reference prices were an entirely bogus notional price that created the false impression that customers were getting a deal when they were not,” the petition, written by John Simpson, Privacy Project director for Consumer Watchdog, reads.

List prices — or reference prices — are posted on some products sold on Amazon to show the difference between a competitor’s price and Amazon’s.

Consumer Watchdog reviewed more than 4,000 products sold by the retail giant and found that references prices were included on more than a quarter of Amazon’s stock. The study found around 40% of the list prices used were larger than the highest price charged by any competitor for the same item.

The Federal Trade Commission standards warn against inflating list prices, as the Consumer Watchdog notes in its petition.

Full Content: LA Times

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