“Unscrupulous sellers charge exorbitant prices for private label products on Bol and Amazon”

Sellers on Amazon and Bol are selling private label products from Ikea, Action, Lidl, and others at exorbitant prices. Although this practice has been going on for years, the platforms involved say it is difficult for them to take action.

Sellers are free to set their own prices

Hundreds of private label items are offered on the Bol and Amazon marketplaces at prices that are sometimes ten times the original price. This is according to research by the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf. Action’s Superfinn bathroom cleaner costs €9.99 on Bol, more than nine times the original price of €1.14. A Silvercrest handheld vacuum cleaner that costs €24.99 at Lidl is offered on Bol for €40. On Amazon, the newspaper found a power strip from Ikea’s own brand Koppla for €36.50, while it costs only €19.99 at the furniture store.

According to the Dutch Consumers’ Association, this form of “rip-off and deception” is nothing new: the problem has been known for years. However, there is little that can be done about it: sellers on these platforms are free to set their own prices. Consumers who pay the exorbitant prices do so at their own risk.

“In principle, Bol’s business sales partners are completely free to set their own sales prices. Nevertheless, we believe it is important to protect customers from unreasonably high prices. That is why we intervene when necessary,” Bol responds. The retailer says it is improving its algorithms, but with 45,000 partners and over 51 million products, this is quite a task. Amazon is investigating the issue.

“Unfortunately, we have no influence over this resale and cannot prevent it entirely, although we do try to limit it where possible,” Action responds. “We find this particularly annoying for customers who pay more unnecessarily, when they can always buy the guaranteed product at the lowest price in the Action shop. We always advise customers to buy our products at Action, so they can be sure they never pay too much.”