It's sad it took a WSJ journalist mentioning it for them to finally act, because it's been known for a long, long time that this stuff happens, so their action was not prompted by being made aware of it, but by getting publicity about it. And as mentioned, there almost certainly is at least some ulterior motive here for Amazon to eliminate competition to their own brands. Action definitely needed to be taken, only years sooner and probably with some sort of third-party arbiter, to ensure Amazon isn't using their power unfairly, not to mention that it seems unlikely they've banned so many companies and didn't ban at least a couple undeservingly in the process, and from what I've read about Amazon, if that were to happen, there would be no recourse for the companies.

My first thought regarding this was that these companies will just open up stores/brands or sell under different names, which seems to be the Chinese modus operandi even pre-ban. It's amazing how often I see the same exact product sold under half a dozen different brandings. And it appears from Shiny's comment that is exactly what's happening.

Quote from: FND UiTM on September 19, 2021, 16:33:13
Another, bullish action from a big tech company. Every company has it's tactics for getting a 5 star review. They were only straightforward because they don't understand the culture that much.Just give them a warning or a fine. Band permenantly?  More like getting rid of the competition

There are acceptable tactics and then there are straight-up unethical, deceptive tactics. These companies have been doing this stuff for years, have received warnings, have caused Amazon to change the rules to try and curb it, and have continued doing it. Not to mention they (presumably) read and signed a contract with Amazon agreeing to act a certain way. If they didn't read it or didn't fully understand it, that's on them. I'm not sure why their ignorance, willful or otherwise, which causes harm to untold numbers of consumers, should be allowed to continue. And that's exactly what would happen if they received a warning, because they already have received warnings, and because they clearly can't comprehend the rules in the first place, so what's the likelihood they'll understand the warning? Meanwhile, if they're warned, and continue, more consumers will buy products with artificially high ratings that may or may not actually be as good as the ratings suggest. I'm tired of the lack of accountability everywhere.

After the last time I bought aukey headphones and some other brands chargers off Amazon I'm very glad they're actually doing something about this ridiculousness. I've just stopped buying electronics from the site all together.

From what I've seen on Amazon,  these offenders (MPOW for example) have been opening a new Amazon store under different names. The product pictures are devoid of any branding; yet consumers post pictures of the products that clearly shows "MPOW" emblazoned on the boxes & products.
In fact, their "M30" earbuds are in the top 50 at Amazon.

Well, Aukey and RAVPower had their fair share pretty good products. Like any other brand under the sun, they also had their fair share of bad ones.

The fact they were so aggressive in manipulating the ratings system so that consumers could not tell apart the good products from the bad warrants a well-deserved ban.

I must also say that not that long ago one of the lesser known Chinese brands tried to "buy me" a review using this very same method: they have a private channel were they announce "free stuff" for "beta testers". The way that works is you order the product in Amazon, write a 5-star review that shows "validated purchase", and they'll then "refund" your purchase in gift certificates.

From that moment onwards I refused to buy anything from those brands, do not trust their reviews or buzz -- those are paid shills.

happy that these brands are out. I purchased both aukey and ravpower and quality is s***

Not that I'm a big fan, but it does seem that large companies like Amazon com can't win.

"Amazon is horrible, too many fake reviews!"

[Amazon starts cleaning up the fake reviews & their instigators.]

"Amazon is horrible, they're eliminating competition!"

Oy vey.

Another, bullish action from a big tech company. Every company has it's tactics for getting a 5 star review. They were only straightforward because they don't understand the culture that much.Just give them a warning or a fine. Band permenantly?  More like getting rid of the competition

Never trust what Amazon does to sellers. They are incentivized to remove suppliers from competitive product categories so they can replace them with their own "Basics" range as the sole choice.

The tactic is no different to how Apple operates on the app store. Remove popular apps and then replace it with their own.