News Pricing glitch could bankrupt Amazon sellers this Xmas

there are plenty of people who still think you have to sell at the price on show, but if you go into a shop, and something is mispriced, the shop can refuse to sell at that price, and correct any error once made aware of it.[/QUOTE]

Its called 'an invitation to treat'

 

Most likely the account of the buyer has been charged, fully automatic, thus the seller has agreed to the stated price. Both parties have agreed to a contract at this point (money for goods).

Liability depends on the contract between the Amazon sellers and RepricerExpress now. RepricerExpress may have included a paragraph which clears them of all liability in case of a glitch. But that's what lawyers are for right?

 

As normal the TOS for RepricerExpress clears them of any liability.

 

That's the problem! Once they are shipped, there's essentially no going back....

I suspect that Amazon's lawyers are frantically looking for case-law as we speak!

 

I didn't say it was Amazon's fault; I said Amazon could be negatively impacted. Amazon's customers in this case are the resellers, to whom they are selling their platform or whatever you want to call it. I thought I made that clear, but perhaps not. These customers may feel it is necessary to use 3rd party software, if they are to make the amazon platform work for them, especially if other sellers are using it. It seems to me (as just some bloke) that it's kind of a problem with capitalism; if everyone else is taking stupid risks and getting away with it, then you are forced to take the same risks or be uncompetitive and go bankrupt waiting for them to fail. Eventually it's all going to go tits up but it's kind of the system's fault. The thing is, it may well partly be amazon's fault for milking the resellers so hard, but I imagine they can easily afford to fix this problem themselves from all the money they're making. Doing nothing will probably cost them more.

tl;dr Amazon make money off resellers->a whole bunch of resellers go bankrupt trying to be competitive->Amazon obviously affected! Doing nothing and letting all the affected resellers go under would appear to be the worst possible outcome for amazon, regardless of blame.