Feds Bust Up ‘Conspiracy’ to Fix DVD, Blu-ray Disc Prices on Amazon Marketplace (1 Viewer)

[Guardyan]

From mediaplaynews.com:

Five individuals and four companies have been sentenced for participating in a conspiracy to fix the prices of DVDs and Blu-Ray Discs sold on the Amazon Marketplace, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee announced Aug. 24.

A federal investigation led to a total of six individual guilty pleas and four corporate guilty pleas.

Victor Btesh of New York was sentenced to 18 months’ incarceration, followed by two years of supervised release, and a fine of $38,000. Btesh’s three companies — Michelle’s DVD Funhouse, MJR Prime, and Prime Brooklyn — were each respectively sentenced to criminal fines of $156,520, $125,688, and $61,844 on Aug. 23, 2023, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee.

Last month, Emmanuel Hourizadeh, Raymond Nouvahian, Morris Sutton, Bruce Fish, and Fish’s company, BDF Enterprises Inc., were all sentenced on July 21, 2023, also in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee. Hourizadeh, and Nouvahian, both of New York, were sentenced to one month’s imprisonment, seven months’ home confinement, a criminal fine of $55,000 each, and two years of supervised release. Sutton, of New Jersey, was sentenced to one month’s imprisonment, five months’ home confinement, a $20,000 criminal fine, and two years of supervised released. Fish, of Minnesota, was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment, six months’ home confinement, a $48,750 criminal fine, and two years of supervised released. And Fish’s company, BDF Enterprises, was handed down a $234,000 criminal fine.

“Conspiring to fix prices in online marketplaces is a federal crime,” said U.S. Attorney Francis M. Hamilton III, of the Eastern District of Tennessee. “These convictions and sentences demonstrate our office’s commitment to prosecuting price-fixing conspiracies and to protecting consumers in the Eastern District of Tennessee from paying inflated prices in online marketplaces.”

As if collectors didn't have enough problems already...

 

[BobO'Link]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say they weren't very successful in their quest... I've not heard of any of these MP vendor companies and I purchase *lots* of media from Amazon and their Marketplace. The only things I see at "non competitive" prices are *some* items that are OOP.

Just how do only *4* MP vendors "price fix" for every other MP vendor and thus remove competition? Not that they shouldn't receive a HUGE smackdown - just doesn't seem plausible to even try.

 

[JC Riesenbeck]

I've quit buying from third-party sellers on Amazon, even if Amazon ships the product. After several incidents, I finally figured out that Amazon is covering for a lot of bad third-party sellers by dismissing complaints as "we are responsible for this fulfillment"; thus, negative reviews don't show up in the ratings. One particular seller I bought from had over 50 negative reviews just for the month of July, yet Amazon showed them with a 100 percent approval rating. Checking the reviews, most had to do with faulty products, not just a delivery problem and how do you have that many complaints and do nothing about it?

 

[Capt D McMars]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say they weren't very successful in their quest... I've not heard of any of these MP vendor companies and I purchase *lots* of media from Amazon and their Marketplace. The only things I see at "non competitive" prices are *some* items that are OOP.

Just how do only *4* MP vendors "price fix" for every other MP vendor and thus remove competition? Not that they shouldn't receive a HUGE smackdown - just doesn't seem plausible to even try.

Yeah, it's amazing what an oversized sense of self can do...But, I m ME!!!?? This is a good thing, and a sad thing, but most of all a real thing. Thanks for the heads up!!

 

[BobO'Link]

I've quit buying from third-party sellers on Amazon, even if Amazon ships the product. After several incidents, I finally figured out that Amazon is covering for a lot of bad third-party sellers by dismissing complaints as "we are responsible for this fulfillment"; thus, negative reviews don't show up in the ratings. One particular seller I bought from had over 50 negative reviews just for the month of July, yet Amazon showed them with a 100 percent approval rating. Checking the reviews, most had to do with faulty products, not just a delivery problem and how do you have that many complaints and do nothing about it?

Supposedly Amazon ejects such vendors - but, like you, I see lots of that kind of stuff as I read through pages of feedback before trying a new-to-me vendor. Too many of those "we are responsible" cancellations of negative feedback, for me, is just as valid as the negative feedback - even with Amazon doing "delivery" as, quite often, packages I get that are "Fulfilled by Amazon" have the MP vendor's return address on the label - not Amazons. That tells me that what I ordered was *not* in an Amazon warehouse but at the MP vendor's site and they just use Amazon boxes/labels.

 

[Capt D McMars]

I've quit buying from third-party sellers on Amazon, even if Amazon ships the product. After several incidents, I finally figured out that Amazon is covering for a lot of bad third-party sellers by dismissing complaints as "we are responsible for this fulfillment"; thus, negative reviews don't show up in the ratings. One particular seller I bought from had over 50 negative reviews just for the month of July, yet Amazon showed them with a 100 percent approval rating. Checking the reviews, most had to do with faulty products, not just a delivery problem and how do you have that many complaints and do nothing about it?

My Problem is that I'm seeing reviews of disassociated item, right title wrong editions....that can happen. A review of a 12yr old DVD as opposed to the newer BD edition, for example

 

[JC Riesenbeck]

Supposedly Amazon ejects such vendors - but, like you, I see lots of that kind of stuff as I read through pages of feedback before trying a new-to-me vendor. Too many of those "we are responsible" cancellations of negative feedback, for me, is just as valid as the negative feedback - even with Amazon doing "delivery" as, quite often, packages I get that are "Fulfilled by Amazon" have the MP vendor's return address on the label - not Amazons. That tells me that what I ordered was *not* in an Amazon warehouse but at the MP vendor's site and they just use Amazon boxes/labels.

The negativity will pop up if you go to the ratings and click on the one-star reviews. I found out the hard way that's what one should do and Amazon needs a better system and quit this. I ordered a bluray of Point of No Return. I got a bluray of Pretty Woman which I already owned. But on the back was a bar code for Point of No Return. I ordered the Gidget Bluray set based on what I read here. I ordered it, and got the DVD's that I already owned. So I sent them back with the note that they were not the blurays I had ordered. And I received: the same old DVD set available anywhere for a cheaper price a second time. I finally was able to get the Gidget Austrailian set from Deep Discount.

 

[Guardyan]

I've quit buying from third-party sellers on Amazon, even if Amazon ships the product. After several incidents, I finally figured out that Amazon is covering for a lot of bad third-party sellers by dismissing complaints as "we are responsible for this fulfillment"; thus, negative reviews don't show up in the ratings. One particular seller I bought from had over 50 negative reviews just for the month of July, yet Amazon showed them with a 100 percent approval rating. Checking the reviews, most had to do with faulty products, not just a delivery problem and how do you have that many complaints and do nothing about it?

Very pertinent comment with thoughtful observations. I've been there but the bigger issue is that it's not just an Amazon problem since that also happens on other platforms that allow "marketplace." It's expected that whatever company that runs a platform of the kind will reimburse me in case of a bad seller, but what is really annoying is the waste of time when you could have chosen another company/someone else to buy from and saved yourself the trouble. It's even more annoying when they ask you to return it to the seller and you have to repackage the defective product and drop it at a post office (that doesn't happen much with Amazon but it's still a thing).

There was a time that buying directly from Amazon was a dream: you could expect things nicely packaged for shipping, it was just better than going to a store. It was really a stress free experience. But back in mid-2000s I started getting books with crushed corners, DVDs inside envelopes with ineffective bubblewrap... just a mess. These days it's totally hit or miss. There's no more BD shops in my area, so now I buy from online boutiques because I don't want that special edition that comes inside a box to have damaged corners due to poor shipping package.

And review systems need a serious revamp.

 

[jayembee]

For the most part, I stopped buying things from Amazon -- themselves or through Marketplace -- several years ago. I made occasional exceptions for Marketplace sellers I'd dealt with before (or for uncommon items I felt I couldn't pass up) and for things from international Amazon sites. Other than two OOP books I ordered from two separate Marketplace dealers earlier this year, I haven't bought anything through Amazon since early 2021.

I admit that my primary reason was because of my objection to a lot of Amazon's business practices. But it was also due to shoddy packaging causing damage to the items in too many instances. The two aforementioned books came direct from the vendors, and (fortunately) packed very well.

My wife, though, still gets some things from Amazon, though much less than she used to (she's been an Amazon customer since pretty much when they started doing business). And we do get household consumables from them by subscription. That's also my wife's doing.

 

[Guardyan]

For the most part, I stopped buying things from Amazon -- themselves or through Marketplace -- several years ago. I made occasional exceptions for Marketplace sellers I'd dealt with before (or for uncommon items I felt I couldn't pass up) and for things from international Amazon sites. Other than two OOP books I ordered from two separate Marketplace dealers earlier this year, I haven't bought anything through Amazon since early 2021.

I admit that my primary reason was because of my objection to a lot of Amazon's business practices. But it was also due to shoddy packaging causing damage to the items in too many instances. The two aforementioned books came direct from the vendors, and (fortunately) packed very well.

My wife, though, still gets some things from Amazon, though much less than she used to (she's been an Amazon customer since pretty much when they started doing business). And we do get household consumables from them by subscription. That's also my wife's doing.

I think Amazon has also broken our brains in what concerns shipping: we (even though I know I cannot speak for everyone) feel it's weird when we have to pay for shipping. I dunno if it's just me but the words "free shipping" sometimes make me more inclined to consider buying something. Still, you are very right about their business practices: that has stopped me in my tracks very often in the last 5 years.

The fact is: buying something that already comes in a sturdy packaging is no biggie. Books/BDs/collectibles in general is a problem considering that most of the time their packaging (well, mainly for discs as books have none) is part of the experience of collecting them. Amazon has not done any favors to the types of products that actually helped popularize their service back in the day.