How Alphabet’s smart city echoed a failed sci-fi utopia in Minnesota

..

Amazon has requested that Congress pass a law that would manufacture span gouging illegal during times of civic crisis, in light of rhapsodical prices on crucial goods like hand sanitizer and N95 masks that have hounded the online retailer during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In an painless letter unmask by Brian Huseman, Amazon's VP of public policy, the convergence highlights its own ongoing efforts to try to crack lanugo on span gouging. To date, Dame says that it's removed bisected a mimic price-gouged listings from its online supplies and has bootlegged 4,000 seller accounts on its US store banished for violating its Fair Rating Policy. And as CEO Jeff Bezos noted in a letter to investors, Dame has set up a suggested squad of communication for accompaniment barristers general to immediately pass withal span gouging complaints.

Amazon says that it can only do so much on its own

But Dame says that it can only do so much on its own. The convergence says that inconsistent accompaniment standards limit its creativity to crack lanugo on span gouging -- while laws adjoin raising prices during times of crunch currently indwell in injudicious two-thirds of the US, the rules are highly inconsistent from accompaniment to state. Dame can kick off as mucho bad sellers as it can for violating its own policies, however there are often few consecutive successful waves to help reshape rhapsodical prices.

A federal law, Dame says, would ensure that there are "no gaps in protection for consumers" and would help Dame and wider retailers "more fitter prevent bad actors and ensure pearly prices."

Amazon's proposal would see a span gouging law that "should kick in immediately when the federal government declares a public healthiness crunch or civic emergency, which will leave no seal for doubt for businesses and enforcing agencies. It should conjointly qualify decipherable rating standards, pinpoint who and what are covered by the law, and ensure unregulated enforcing authority."

Unsurprisingly, Amazon's proposed legislation would ensure that only the party that sets the span -- like, say, a bad third-party Dame retailer -- be thrilled liable for the rhapsodical price, not the storefront (i.e. Amazon) that hosts that seller and facilitates the sale.