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I just found out that our stuff is being sold on Amazon - WITHOUT our consent or any ability to opt out bc Amazon is just scraping artist’s websites and putting our shit in their search results. Again, without our permission.

Why is this a problem? You’d think we’d want wider distribution, right? Sure. But we want to control where our stuff is for sale. We sell a lot of limited edition art. What if Amazon’s search didn’t reflect that it’s a Ltd edition and oversells? Then I have to deal with one of the worst

This feels exactly like those restaurants who found out they were listed on all kinds of delivery websites without their knowledge. Their customers invariably got terrible deals and service, and thought it was the restaurant's fault.

EXACTLY THAT.

Also, Amazon's got the capital to offer discounts on your products (even if they're paying you full price for them) in order to capture your customers. If they can do that enough, eventually Amazon would be your ONLY customer, and then they control your business.

Adding to this: we have spent the better part of two decades building Monkey Minion. Without Amazon. I don’t know if it’s paternalism, entitlement or something worse that makes Amazon think this is a good idea, but it’s not. I opted not to list our products on Amazon a long time ago. I could have

decided to go through their ridiculous process and ship our stuff to their warehouses and open a store there. I didn’t. Because I didn’t need or want to. Our customers can find us without Amazon. And frankly, with all the garbage big tech keeps doing,

This is so insidious, this is basically a megacorp that's engaging in drop shipping behavior and trying to take a cut from small businesses Surely this is grounds for a lawsuit right???? How is this not illegal

I’ve been seeing this happening to a lot of artists with Shopify shops. Supposedly you can opt out by emailing branddirect@amazon.com but no confirmation if it works or not.