Peak Design claims Amazon copied its Everyday Sling bag

Peak Design, a maker of thin bags and accessories, has a problem: Amazon appears to have copied its popular bag, the $ 99.95 Everyday Sling, with its own $ 32.99 Amazon Basics camera bag. It was even called Everyday Sling until the Peak Design video. Rather than doing anything drastic, Peak Design decided to make a video about what customers “earn” by purchasing the Amazon version.

The video clearly showcases Peak’s case: the bags are similar in shape, with pockets, tags, and straps in exactly the same places. As someone unfamiliar with bags from Peak Design, if I wasn’t careful or read “Peak Design” on the label, I would probably mix them up.

Image: Cutting edge design

Peak presents it all with humor, but the evidence is surprisingly glaring, which makes Amazon’s apparent decision to change its Amazon Basics version of “Everyday Sling” to “Amazon Basics Camera Bag” all the more suspect. There is even evidence: “Everyday Sling” is still in the URL of the “Camera Bag”.

Peak Design isn’t the first small business to try to stand up to Amazon. When Allbirds found out that Amazon was selling what looked like a fairly obvious clone of Allbirds, the company’s CEO wrote a Medium article criticizing Amazon, even though he said he was “flattered” by the similarities between the shoes. Amazon’s copy didn’t stop there. The company has also been accused of cloning car trunk organizers and seat cushions.

The whole trend has only served to draw attention to a potential antitrust issue that has long preoccupied critics of the company, as well as lawmakers and regulators. The basic problem: Amazon owns and operates its e-commerce platform and also maintains an ever-growing list of internal brands that compete with Amazon’s third-party sellers on that same platform.

Reducing competition is in theory as easy as seeing what is selling well, creating a similar and cheaper product, and then suggesting it to Amazon buyers. In fact, this very situation is at the heart of a European Union investigation into the company’s activities, which led the European Commission to accuse Amazon of “systematically” using sellers’ data to unfairly compete with its own. merchants in France and Germany last November.

Amazon claims to have a policy in place to prevent the use of third-party seller data for products, The Wall Street Journal suggests that it always happened. As Vice Note, even former CEO Jeff Bezos was unable to confirm whether the policy was violated during the House Judiciary Committee’s investigation into Amazon’s monopoly status.

In the case of Peak Design, the company said in a statement to The edge he believes Amazon actually infringed on its intellectual property, but he chose to make the video to highlight the differences between the products and has no plans to take legal action now.

Reviews are currently disabled on Amazon’s bag because the company noticed “unusual review activity.” Looking at some of the more recent reviews, several of the lowest ratings were left by customers directly referencing the Peak Design video. Taken with Amazon’s decision to change the name of the product, it looks like Peak Design has touched a bead.

The edge has contacted Amazon regarding Peak Design’s claim and we will update if we receive a response.