Germany Orders Amazon To Stop Taking Advantage of People Who Can't Spell 'Birkenstock' (qz.com) 162
Germany has barred Amazon from drawing in online shoppers who misspell iconic German sandal maker Birkenstock in their Google searchers. "Amazon reportedly won business for common Birkenstock misspellings by booking variants like 'Brikenstock,' 'Bierkenstock,' and 'Birkenstok' in Google AdWords, so that they produced search results for shoes sold in Amazon.com," reports Quartz. From the report: According to Reuters, Birkenstock turned to the court because it feared shoppers might unwittingly buy shoddy counterfeits, which could damage its brand reputation. "For us, Amazon is complicit," Birkenstock chief Oliver Reichert told German magazine Der Spiegel, according to Reuters. Birkenstock first walked away from Amazon.com in July 2016. Besieged by counterfeits and rogue merchants, the company said it would no longer supply products to Amazon for U.S. customers starting Jan. 1, 2017. "The Amazon marketplace, which operates as an 'open market,' creates an environment where we experience unacceptable business practices which we believe jeopardize our brand," David Kahan, Birkenstock's CEO for the Americas, wrote in a memo at the time.
A year later, Kahan denounced Amazon in a lengthy memo for attempting to get Birkenstock retailers to sell it their inventory, even though the company had explicitly removed its sandals from Amazon.com in the U.S. "I share in no uncertain terms that this is unacceptable and will not be tolerated," Kahan wrote. "[A]ny Authorized retailer who may do this for even a single pair will be closed FOREVER."
A year later, Kahan denounced Amazon in a lengthy memo for attempting to get Birkenstock retailers to sell it their inventory, even though the company had explicitly removed its sandals from Amazon.com in the U.S. "I share in no uncertain terms that this is unacceptable and will not be tolerated," Kahan wrote. "[A]ny Authorized retailer who may do this for even a single pair will be closed FOREVER."
Re:if ur so stupid u cant spell (Score:5, Interesting)
The question is not whether dumb people deserve to get ripped off. The question is whether Birkenstock deserves to lose those sales. Anti-counterfeiting laws are not meant to protect customers (even if that's how they are sold to the public).
What does puzzle me a bit, though, is how Birkenstock can prohibit certified Birkenstock retailers from selling on Amazon, and threaten to close them forever if they do. Wouldn't that run afoul of a bunch of competition laws?
Re:if ur so stupid u cant spell (Score:5, Interesting)
What does puzzle me a bit, though, is how Birkenstock can prohibit certified Birkenstock retailers from selling on Amazon, and threaten to close them forever if they do. Wouldn't that run afoul of a bunch of competition laws?
Manufacturers can sell to whoever they want, as long as they don't discriminate based against any of the protected groups (race, religion, sex, age, etc). They can simply say "if you sell through Amazon, we will not longer sell to you". They are of course free to buy retail and re-sell on Amazon, but it doesn't make sense anymore. I've dealt with this in the past with manufacturers who set their prices based on country, and for the very same goods would charge as much as 3x depending on the destination country. There it makes sense to buy a trainload of shoes, for example, destined to a country where the shoes are cheaper, and then resell those shoes in countries where the price is 3x. This happens, but the re-sellers are very careful because if they caught selling to such "grey market" they lose their re-seller status. I've dealt with this in pre-Amazon days with shoes and once with cars as you used to be able to get away with it some small scale, but nowadays the manufacturers are viciously tracking this types of sales, so all re-sellers are scared.
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Manufacturers can sell to whoever they want, as long as they don't discriminate based against any of the protected groups (race, religion, sex, age, etc).
Are you sure? I'm sure they get away with it quite often, but that's not the same as saying the practice is legal. :)
Afaik, manufacturers (or brand owners, if you will) can't dictate re-seller prices, etc. This is anti competitive behavior. Yes, they often get away with it, and yes, it's hard to prosecute. And no, I'm not a lawyer
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Such contracts are the reason why you get the incredibly annoying "add the product to the cart to see the sale price"
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Mostly right, but in the US and the various States, there are laws that limit manufacturers' ability to having vertical pricing arrangements. Specifically, an agreement in restraint of trade is unlawful even though a unilateral (and universal) vertical pricing policy is lawful. Also lawful are manufacturer-imposed "territories", which is a bit confusing.
Here's some guidance from the Federal Trade Commission [ftc.gov] and a recent Supreme Court Ruling [wikipedia.org].
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Manufacturers can sell to whoever they want, as long as they don't discriminate based against any of the protected groups (race, religion, sex, age, etc.
RETAILERS can sell to whoever they want, as long as they don't discriminate based against any of the protected groups (race, religion, sex, age, etc) as well. Birkenstock might get to set pricing, but they don't get to dictate customer relationships.
Also, I'm curious if the AdWords campaign is being done by Amazon corporate office, or one of the people who list stuff on their site. If so, it's not really under Amazon's control.
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What does puzzle me a bit, though, is how Birkenstock can prohibit certified Birkenstock retailers from selling on Amazon, and threaten to close them forever if they do. Wouldn't that run afoul of a bunch of competition laws?
Probably for the same reason we have "prescription cat food". It's not actually illegal for you to sell it to someone who lacks a "prescription", it's just that if you do, the manufacturer won't sell it to you wholesale anymore. (In return, vets prescribe it; they get extra exam business from the people who need prescriptions, and they generate business ultimately for the manufacturer.)
Businesses do collude, all the time, and often get away with it.
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People who would buy and wear Birkenstocks for sure deserve to get ripped off. But really in the end this hissy fit is pointless; Google would end up directing the misspellings mostly to the correct spelling anyway.
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If those identical goods can sell for a price, sometimes drastically, below the real deal, it shows that profits are being protected, not consumers.
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Re: if ur so stupid u cant spell (Score:2)
But should a company have free reign to sell knock offs, using the same brand name, especially when not sanctioned by original company. As a customer I get deceived about product and quality and as the original company there is trademark infringement.
Amazon does sell counterfeit products (Score:1)
I've seen counterfeit Samsung chargers, there is probably other stuff.
Alibaba sells counterfeits, not Amazon (Score:5, Funny)
Alibaba is owned by some sleazy Chinese
They sell counterfeits
Amazon is owned by an Outstanding American Super-Billionaire who told us he won't sell counterfeits
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Amazon is owned by an Outstanding American Super-Billionaire who told us he won't sell counterfeits
Well, maybe he won't, but the scumbag third party sellers who he allows to sell on his site sure as hell will. The old adage applies just like it always has; Caveat Emptor, let the buyer beware.
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Dog fighting materials are A-OK though. Feh.
I've seen plenty of counterfeits on Amazon, and people who depict one thing but ship something different and inferior. When I have reported either Amazon has refused to take it down.
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Amazon warehouses treat goods as fungible when they're not.
You can pay for the real item, and be fulfilled from knockoff inventory.
As always, buyer beware.
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You must be old, because you haven't been on an American college campus in awhile.
The Burka is a symbol of tolerance, diversity and womans' liberation.
If you disagree, you're a racist cis-gendered islamophobe.
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It's always easy to spot the one that never had higher education but plenty of prejudices.
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I like to think of someone wearing a burka as an inversion of a naked person wearing sunglasses. ymmv.
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If and when the jig is up he will cut a backroom deal that includes a full pardon "for the good of the nation".
Or, when the jig is up, he'll stop dancing to their tune.
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That's the backroom deal. He gets the pardon. He's not going to pardon himself. And why the insult? Obviously I was referring to the presidential pardoning power, so why would you think you had to both tell me about it and insult me while doing so?
I don't know if Trump will complete his term, but if I could bet I would easily go with yes.
Re: Not Amazon's fault. (Score:1)
Is the part where Amazon bought AdWords for common misspellings in much the same way malware authors buy commonly misspelled AdWords Amazon's fault, though?
Read it carefully if it looks confusing to you.
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No, it's the part where third-party sellers bought the misspelled keywords, and the ignorant Schweinhund at Birkenstock blames Amazon for it.
Resale Price Maintenance or price fixing (Score:2, Insightful)
Why is it shoes and cosmetics are obsessed with price fixing? We had this debase with grey marketing many times before.
It goes like this - you are not allowed to sell that pair of shoes for less that $80. Most countries ban this anti competitive practice.Cameras watches and i Phones are also price fixed to extents, including controlling spare parts.
Price fixing means you - the consumer pays more, and probably geolocation price fixing as well. Authorized re-seller is just a code word to control price
Re:Not Amazon's fault. (Score:5, Interesting)
A company that thinks they're going to teach Amazon a lesson by not selling their products there makes the same mistake small shop owners make by not moving away when a Walmart opens down the street. Very noble and for a minute it may work, but sooner than later the business dies because customer loyalty is fragile, especially on things worth at most $100-$200.
For instance I like Garmin GPS products, but when I want a new GPS device I'm not going to fuck around browsing individual websites and opening accounts right and left and dealing with weird shipping rules, I go on Amazon. If there's no Garmin there I'll give another brand a chance because my loyalty doesn't trump the convenience of just adding it to a shopping cart full of other stuff already connected to my credit card and shipping info.
Those birkenstock people are not gonna win.
Re:Not Amazon's fault. (Score:5, Insightful)
For instance I like Garmin GPS products, but when I want a new GPS device I'm not going to fuck around browsing individual websites and opening accounts right and left and dealing with weird shipping rules, I go on Amazon. If there's no Garmin there I'll give another brand a chance because my loyalty doesn't trump the convenience of just adding it to a shopping cart full of other stuff already connected to my credit card and shipping info.
I'm almost the polar opposite. Once Ive fonud a product I want, I'll go where I can get it. I figure that if it's above a certain amount and I'm going to be using it a lot, then the time saved by getting a good quality one that I know will work and I know how to use will trump the one off cost of 3 to 4 minutes required to buy it from not amazon.
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I figure that if it's above a certain amount and I'm going to be using it a lot, then the time saved by getting a good quality one that I know will work and I know how to use will trump the one off cost of 3 to 4 minutes required to buy it from not amazon.
Then I guess we just have a different "certain amount" threshold. And it takes more than an extra 3-4 minutes when you have to deal with accounts, shipping and all that on top of having to find the product. Plus that's one more site likely to have their customer database pwned because they didn't configure mongo or s3 properly, or because they used an old unpatched struts or wordpress.
I don't think I'd buy a minivan on Amazon, but a $100 or $200 thing, that's a no-brainer.
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Then I guess we just have a different "certain amount" threshold. And it takes more than an extra 3-4 minutes when you have to deal with accounts, shipping and all that on top of having to find the product.
Not my experience. Many vendors, most I'd say seem to let you check out as a guest, so there's no wrangling of accounts or anything.
Click on product, press "buy", enter address and CC info and done!
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Interestingly, Lush Cosmetics has a lot in common with Birkenstock.
Amazon = $136,000,000,000 annual revenue, 540,000 employees, invented cloud computing, host Netflix and CIA servers
Birkenstock = $500,000,000 annual revenue, 4,000 employees, sell sandals, run their website on a shared shopping cart service
Lush Cosmetics = $300,000,000 annual revenue, 3,000 employees, sell cosmetics, run their website on the same shared shopping cart service as Birkenstock
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It's the same for fashion items. Brands are not interchangeable. Apple phones are an example that nerds might be familiar with. There are loads of other phones but people want an Apple specifically and won't just buy whatever is easily available.
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Customer loyalty lasts right up until the next sale.
Never underestimate the power of "keeping up with the Joneses". For most Americans, price is king with quality a distant second, mainly because most Americans can't afford quality.
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Well, a big problem with paying for quality is that you often end up with the same crappy low-quality item, just marked way up. This goes double for buying off of Amazon which is full of sketchy third-party sellers and counterfeits, and with the way Amazon does its fulfillment, you don't know what you're going to get and from where until it arrives on your doorstep.
So you might as well buy on price. You likely will end up with a cheap piece of crap, but at least you got what you paid for.
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Dude we're not talking about Faberge eggs or Picasso paintings, this is about $50 sandals. Get a life.
Editors (Score:5, Funny)
"Amazon reportedly won business for common Birkenstock misspellings by booking variants like 'Birkenstock,' 'Bierkenstock,' and 'Birkenstok' in Google AdWords"
Slasdot editors are evidently unable to properly misspell Birkenstock.
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They also forgot the most popular search query: “Beer can stock”.
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Which one is the counterfeit? Birkenstock or Birkenstock?
Re: Editors (Score:1)
The Swedish ripoff.
Borkenstick.
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I copy-n-pasted it into notepad just to make sure I wasn't losing mine.
Stupid court ruling, stupid Amazon (Score:4, Interesting)
Really, the court ruling is idiotic. If Amazon cannot book those words, some counterfeiter will. And what permutations, exactly, counts as a misspelling? What about other names, where there are many legitimate spellings?
That said, Amazon has really shot itself in the foot with it's 3rd party marketplace. It is increasingly difficult to sort out the crap, the potential crap, and the legitimate products. Personally, and precisely for this reason, I order a lot less from Amazon than I used to.
Re:Stupid court ruling, stupid Amazon (Score:5, Informative)
Birkenstock doesn't sell on amazon precisely because of a falling out in which it claims amazon doesn't effectively prevent counterfeiters on amazon's own marketplace.
Re:Stupid court ruling, stupid Amazon (Score:5, Informative)
Then why is there an "Amazon Birkenstock Store"?
https://www.amazon.com/Birkens... [amazon.com]
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I read the decision and it's because Amazon uses the misspellings to sell counterfeit shoes. Amazon can't sell the real ones themselves, everything on there is fake and they refuse to police third party sellers.
It's really not an unusual decision.
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Re:Stupid court ruling, stupid Amazon (Score:5, Informative)
Really, the court ruling is idiotic. If Amazon cannot book those words, some counterfeiter will. And what permutations, exactly, counts as a misspelling? What about other names, where there are many legitimate spellings?
That said, Amazon has really shot itself in the foot with it's 3rd party marketplace. It is increasingly difficult to sort out the crap, the potential crap, and the legitimate products. Personally, and precisely for this reason, I order a lot less from Amazon than I used to.
This.
And, for example, Apple reportedly did an investigation of all the "Genuine Apple" AC adapters on Amazon, and found something like 90% or more were bootleg, non-Apple parts.
And lest you think they were doing that just to promote sales of their own stuff, they started the investigation because of a rash of Trashed iOS and Mac equipment, where the AC adapter had destroyed the gear.
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Apple
Congrats, you managed to inject Apple in a story about counterfeit sandals. You beat the Trump or SystemD trolls this time.
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Apple
Congrats, you managed to inject Apple in a story about counterfeit sandals. You beat the Trump or SystemD trolls this time.
Funny that I just KNEW some Slashtard like you would miss the point ENTIRELY.
You know, you don't get any extra points for following me round to gainsay every single thing I comment-about...
Moron.
spoilers (Score:2)
You know, you don't get any extra points for following me round to gainsay every single thing I comment-about
When your mom told you that you're special and that everyone remembers you, she was lying.
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You know, you don't get any extra points for following me round to gainsay every single thing I comment-about
When your mom told you that you're special and that everyone remembers you, she was lying.
Funny, I remember you commenting on many of my Slashdot postings; therefore, I assume you remember me, too.
Or do you have some sort of mental disability?
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Yet the APPLE story is on-point. What is your issue ... you a manufacture of real-fake SWISS-ARMY watches, COACH ragbags or warmist, Trotsky-ite news ? Can't get bling-traction without faux-action ? Sluts do love bitching together like Chicago baby-momaz hooting krak.
That is the best AC comment I've read in YEARS!!!
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Is this a criticism of Amazon's third party marketplace or a reflection of a fact that increasingly, the only 'tangible' difference between 'real' and 'counterfeit' is the ephemeral 'quality' imbued by being manufactured on behalf of those owning the IP?
Is it possible that in the near future, the counterfeit items will be manufactured to a higher standard than the 'real' ones? If so, would the counterfeiter the
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uhh, ephemeral -> intangible
Is this a criticism of Amazon's third party marketplace or a reflection of a fact that increasingly, the only 'tangible' difference between 'real' and 'counterfeit' is the intangible 'quality' imbued by being manufactured on behalf of those owning the IP?
Is it possible that in the near future, the counterfeit items will be manufactured to a higher standard than the 'real' ones? If
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You'd be amazed the corners they cut...but they have infected _all_ the channels. Buyer beware.
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That said, Amazon has really shot itself in the foot with it's 3rd party marketplace. It is increasingly difficult to sort out the crap, the potential crap, and the legitimate products. Personally, and precisely for this reason, I order a lot less from Amazon than I used to.
I used to think ordering from Amazon was better than going to Ebay and buying some random Chinese crap. However, the Amazon 3rd party marketplace seems to be run now by the same Chinese crap sellers. At least on Ebay they are honest about this, and you can try to look up the reviews etc.
Recently ordered few items for Christmas from Amazon, item links were to authentic item listings on Amazon itself, addresses of sellers listed in the US, EU, etc. The stuff that arrives is some copy arriving weeks late direc
Re: Stupid court ruling, stupid Amazon (Score:2)
Amazon will just take your stuff back. Even better, most sellers donâ(TM)t even want to bother going through the return process and just give your money back.
Although Iâ(TM)ve found in many cases that the, cheap direct from China, is actually the item you are expecting.
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The only things I will buy from Amazon are those sold by Amazon itself or if it's sold by a third party seller then it has to be fulfilled by Amazon. That means that Amazon has the item in one of it's warehouses.
Overall I think the third party marketplace has been a failure for customers. It makes Amazon a lot of money for sure. But it's harder to find things now via a search or just drilling down through the categories. Sub-categories are filled with non-related items. I wrote Amazon complaining about how
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Re:Stupid court ruling, stupid Amazon (Score:4, Informative)
Unlike patents or copyrights, trademarks and brand registrations require the owner to actively defend them. So Birkenstock actually didn't have a choice of going after Amazon or not, and neither would it in going after counterfeiters.
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1d19 DNN (Score:1)
Congratulations, you've made my porn file.
New category: exactitude porn.
Typical denizen: He (or she) who hast not yet completed the first chapter of Ur-Nammu [wikipedia.org] for Dummies.
What constitutes a 'virgin' exactly? How do I know if I'm a virgin? [telegraph.co.uk]
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Well, I think you got the right conclusion, but I don't support how you got there. You can't allow somebody to do something wrong because if they don't do it, someone else will. No the real issue is that Amazon didn't do anything wrong here -- and I can't believe I just wrote that.
As long as they don't represent themselves *as* Birkenstock, or sell counterfeit goods, what they're doing is looking for people in the market for sandals.
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The original was typed by hard working German craftsmen, and the imposter was typed by a Chinese sweatshop worker who can't even spell in English or German.
Hard to tell the difference! (Score:5, Funny)
Wow, it's so good I can even tell the difference in the first variant!
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I doubt it. If it was it'd show up as *&(TM)&* or something like that.
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Little Bobby Drop Tables [xkcd.com] is coming for you!
Your brain finds it: Hard to tell the difference! (Score:2)
"variants like 'Birkenstock,' 'Bierkenstock,' and 'Birkenstok'" ...
That first mis-spelling is "B-R-I-Kenstock". Mind you, you're not the only one, it's taken me 10 minutes to realise what was going on
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According to my google, birkenstick make golf clubs, maybe yours is different.
First World Problems (Score:5, Funny)
Wear real shoes people, they protect your toes.
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Sandals are real shoes, they have been worn for thousands of years. No need to change anything.
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Ugh.. (Score:2)
This is what slashdot has come to ... I'm pretty sure that slashdots best moment was the 9-11 coverage. It actually showed what community/social media could do. Oh well... get off my lawn!
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Best moment was after Columbine, with the article in which people discussed systematic bullying that would lead either to suicide or school shootings.
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I'm pretty sure that slashdots best moment was the 9-11 coverage. It actually showed what community/social media could do.
If something like 9-11 happened today, it would be downplayed in the media to avoid suggesting "an amalgam between violent practices and belonging to a religion", unless of course if the terrorists where white males, in which case amalgamation would be a good thing (white males = rape = guns = nazis = trump, and I'm pretty sure we can throw in global warming in there). That is a direct result of what community/social media can do.
The next logical step for society is wiping our asses using three seashells.
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9-11 was 17 years ago.
17 years ago, the Internet was a very different place, Slashdot hadn't been sold off nearly as many times, 6-digit uids were almost unheard of, and there was actually some kind of geek culture around here that influenced others.
And all I remember of the 9-11 coverage on Slashdot was thinking "Oh, for fuck's sake, if I wanted that, I'd go on a news site or research it myself, I want to read about SOMETHING ELSE" like I always did on Slashdot - the stuff nobody else thought important, po
Birkenstock (Score:1)
You have to admit that those two spellings are very close indeed.
Huh? (Score:2)
Interesting but very confusing summary.
Gray vs knockoffs vs OEM? (Score:1)
Birkenstock sure doesn't sound like its customers (Score:2)
Re:Birkenstock sure doesn't sound like its custome (Score:5, Insightful)
The Birkenstock crowd has a rep for being the laid-back hippie Earthmother types. This guy sounds like he's engaged in a scorched-earth battle with Amazon and is willing to burn down anyone else who gets in his way.
No, he sounds like a guy fed up with unsatisfied consumers who bought "beercanstocks" thinking they were authentic, which will damage a reputable brand and product.
And if the manufacturer allegedly stopped selling valid product to Amazon US customers a year ago, no wonder he's pissed. Amazon hasn't done jack shit to deter counterfeiters from selling knock-offs. There's a fucking Birkenstock Amazon store which features their logo, valid photos, obscene prices (one pair had a $130 - 817.78 price range?!), and plenty of reviews warning people about fakes.
Even hippies have their limits. Everyone does.
Misspellings the problem? Nah - it's BeauHD (Score:2)
Amazon reportedly won business for common Birkenstock misspellings by booking variants like 'Birkenstock,'
Maybe I'm blind, but I can't see any difference in those two highlighted words... Heckuva good summary there, Beau!
A tough situation (Score:2)
The situation is a bit more nuanced, and I think it is possible birkenstock is more concerned about non-counterfeit items. Specifically from 3rd party resellers.
There are small resellers which buy from liquidators, and sell the items at a lower price. Think about Ross stores, but just some random seller on Amazon. This creates a messy situation, for the manufacturer (birkenstock), and of course the buyers.
1. There are items from actual authorized resellers (or the manufacturer directly)
2. There are items fr
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It would be solved in part if the 3rd party resellers could be encouraged to mark "last season" goods as such.
A better solution would be for the brands to make it easy for consumers to check. For example, a page on their site where you could put in the URL of the resellers page, and for each product on it, it would rep
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In Germany all commercial sellers have to register with the tax office. They get a ID and have to pay VAT. Foreign sellers have to do the same when selling goods in Germany via Amazon. Still most Chinese sellers neither register nor pay VAT. That's clearly tax fraud and an offence. Since Amazon doesn't check if the Chinese sellers have a valid German tax ID if they wan't to sell their goods in Germany, Amazon is aiding the tax fraud. It's time that Amazon is held responsible for that.
Taxes are for the plebs who can't launder their income through Ireland. Obscenely rich people don't pay those; they use their tax money to buy governments instead.
Besides, it's obviously more important for Bezos to wear the Richest Asshole crown.
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