IDG Contributor Network: Amazon's arbitration attack of its own merchants is system gaming at its best
Online product reviews are one of the most powerful e-commerce sales tools, and it's in the interest of every major e-tailer to keep them credible. That's why Amazon has gone out of its way many times to track down and try to punish — often via lawsuits — site visitors who post bogus reviews. But late last week, Amazon added a tactic that is new in two very critical ways.
First, it started to attack its own merchants. And second, contrary to several published reports, Amazon didn't sue those merchants. Amazon pulled those merchants into arbitration disputes, which is radically different for several interesting reasons.
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