Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Not defending amazon but the same happens in the UK and has done for at least the past ten years. There is a German chain, Aldi, who's entire business is built around selling knock-off brands and then boasting their products are so much cheaper than the actual branded products sold elsewhere.

The closest comparison to the amazon issue would be Tesco who have a range of budget products that look very similar to the branded alternative.



Aldi absolutely doesn't do this IMO - they have own-brands that they have developed with 'knock off' branding, however almost all of their products are own-brand from the start, rather than working with the 'brand' first to work out it's sales and supplier and then cutting them out.

Aldi's questionable ethics are on the branding-similarity side, rather than the Amazon approach of using marketplace data to cut-out middlemen distributors. I'm not saying if their approach is right and wrong, but it's a different and distinct issue.


Aldi also relies on the "white-label" supplier approaching them to develop a product.

https://corporate.aldi.us/en/suppliers/become-a-supplier/

Working with want-to-be suppliers is a full-time job for a large division of their company (my brother does it).


Yes, it is a slightly different issue, I accept, although the brands copied by supermarkets often have the advantage of also being the manufacture.


One notable element from the article is that Amazon.in was intentionally going to the same manufacturers and plants being used by the 'top' brands they were cloning so they could bring to market products with the exact same dimensions manufactured in the same plants presumably by the same people.

"It's just like $BRAND!" well yeah....


I might be old fashioned, but if your contribution to a product is so little that you just take it from a factory in China, stamp your company's name and hand it to an Amazon warehouse, giving yourself a healthy cut in the process, then I really don't mind if Amazon steps in and pass a portion of those savings to me.


It gets even better when the Chinese have their own online stores so you can then bypass Amazon as well.


Yes! I tinker a lot (3D printing, home automation, drones, etc...) and AliExpress is such an amazing place to buy components for 10% of the price I'd see in hobby shops or Amazon.


Shipping is often 1-2 months out, though, and you often don't get refunds without a return shipping cost (as in, FBA has free returns). It's useful to think that the cost of shipping is built into the price on Amazon.com and not on AliExpress.


True but even then for $2 shipped I get an ESP8266. On top of that most sellers are really accommodating if the package is lost and will send you another (sure that means in total it takes 5 months for the chip to get to you).


This could backfire on amazon though since many of these products are very low quality and this reflects on them rather than the third party seller.

I used to specifically buy AmazonBasics thinking there would be a higher quality threshold. Now I know this not the case why bother?


It would be an interesting court case for sure.

Aldi don't pretend that their brands are the famous brands and they don't stock the expensive ones so making cornflakes look a little like "Kellogs Cornflakes" is probably more about customers spotting them on the shelves than trying to get customers to buy yours instead.

If Kellogs claimed trademark infringement, it would be hard for them to prove that they are losing out since Aldi would simply say that they don't sell Kellogs and people aren't in any way being tricked into thinking any of the Aldi brands are real ones.

caveat: I'm no lawyer!


> is probably more about customers spotting them on the shelves than trying to get customers to buy yours instead.

That's the same thing. They don't put Aldi brand cornflakes on the shelf just to be eye candy.


Maybe the millions Kellogg's spend on branding could be an argument?




Consider applying for YC's Fall 2025 batch! Applications are open till Aug 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: