Question Where can we file a complaint regarding GPU prices in the EU?

Page 4 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

psolord

Platinum Member
Sep 16, 2009
2,085
1,233
136
Hello.

As you know perfectly well GPU prices have gone out of this world.

For me this is unacceptable. You may say that that this is the law of supply and demand and to wait it out. Sure that's an option. The other option is to file a complaint and to see what the regulatory authorities in the EU have to say about this and who really is making crazy money in the expense of the people.

So where do we file a formal complaint?

Thanks
 

Midwayman

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2000
5,723
325
126
TLDR - If god damn Apple can go ahead and implement a queue why cant the rest of them do something about it ?

It mostly works for Apple because they are able to satisfy demand relatively quickly. If GPU makers could catch up to demand in a month or so I doubt there would be much market for scalping them. A queue without extensive anti-bot protection would just be flooded the instant it went up if iphones tooks 6 months to stabilize.
 

psolord

Platinum Member
Sep 16, 2009
2,085
1,233
136
It mostly works for Apple because they are able to satisfy demand relatively quickly. If GPU makers could catch up to demand in a month or so I doubt there would be much market for scalping them. A queue without extensive anti-bot protection would just be flooded the instant it went up if iphones tooks 6 months to stabilize.

That's why they had to wait until more inventory was built. AMD and Nvidia are both at fault here. They knew what would happen. Did they care? No!

There must be a law, that you do not ship, until you can support demand. Or to make 100% sure, that one product goes to one person. If they do not care for either, then they are accountable for promoting these behaviors.
 

Mopetar

Diamond Member
Jan 31, 2011
8,086
6,699
136
Dude drop it with the Soviet crap, seriously.

You were the one proposing the laws that harken back to the idiotic central planning policies used by the Soviets. No one knows what demand actually is until it's measured. The market price is what automatically adjusts to bring supply and demand into equilibrium.

If you don't allow that you invariably wind up with a lot of companies that overshoot their estimates and have a lot of excess inventory that no one wants and that's not good for anyone. Never mind the rest of what you propose requires so much corporate or government intrusion into your life that you'd be immeasurably lucky if that's all it was used for.

Also, stop for a second and apply some common sense to what you're proposing. Earlier this year there was a shortage of toilet paper due to people overbuying and stocking up which perpetuated the behavior even more. Should the companies that were manufacturing it be prevented from releasing any new product until they could satisfy this new frenzied demand? Do we need government appointed toilet paper accountants to make sure no one is buying too much? Just let prices increase and naturally mediate people's behavior.
 

tajoh111

Senior member
Mar 28, 2005
306
326
136
You were the one proposing the laws that harken back to the idiotic central planning policies used by the Soviets. No one knows what demand actually is until it's measured. The market price is what automatically adjusts to bring supply and demand into equilibrium.

If you don't allow that you invariably wind up with a lot of companies that overshoot their estimates and have a lot of excess inventory that no one wants and that's not good for anyone. Never mind the rest of what you propose requires so much corporate or government intrusion into your life that you'd be immeasurably lucky if that's all it was used for.

Also, stop for a second and apply some common sense to what you're proposing. Earlier this year there was a shortage of toilet paper due to people overbuying and stocking up which perpetuated the behavior even more. Should the companies that were manufacturing it be prevented from releasing any new product until they could satisfy this new frenzied demand? Do we need government appointed toilet paper accountants to make sure no one is buying too much? Just let prices increase and naturally mediate people's behavior.

Exactly. Such selling policies would involve so much government monitoring, that it would simply do the opposite of what PSOlord wants. It would hurt competition, innovation and ultimately the consumer.

Only companies with the deepest pockets could survive such business practices as any company would be constantly over producing as it is impossible as you said to know exactly know the demand on the market. This would causes an over supply which would cause prices to collapse and kill companies that were forced to stop selling until supply was accumulated by ceasing cashflow, forcing companies to swallow up depreciation and for sellers or producers to eat any losses from any unsold card. This would have an effect so that only a single company can exists(the one that can eat these losses for the longest). We have seen this already during this pandemic with lockdown of businesses killing small companies first. Forcing a company to stop opening and selling while forcing to spend extra money can be tremendously expensive.

It would be a disaster for Nvidia and AMD if they were forced to stop selling cards for 6 months to safety build up enough stock for the market. If in 6 months the pandemic is over and demand for videocards fade, you have recipe for disaster brewing. When you have a tremendous amount of inventory, you have the potential to eat a tremendous amount of depreciation expense. Combine this with having no cashflow for 6 months because you were forced to stop selling which would be hundreds of millions if not billions in expenses accumulated(combine cost of goods sold and R and D/business expenses) and you basically left with a situation where companies with the deepest pockets can survive only. Forcing such measures would kill companies until monopolies are left.

Monopolies are bad because even with governments controlling pricing, a company must find ways to make money which means lowering expenses which comes at the cost at spending less on R and D, loss of jobs and more derivative products like the various lake products coming out of intel. We might gets cheaper products but if products are 5% faster every year, value worsens for consumers in the long run compared to the system we have in place now. E.g performance doubling in 16 years at the same price vs what we have today.
 
Last edited:

Artorias

Platinum Member
Feb 8, 2014
2,145
1,431
136
How is pre-ordering not a thing in 2021. I would give a non-refundable deposit for the next 4080, 5080, etc...if I knew I'd get a card straight from the manufacture on release day.

As long as they're held accountable for performance increases this seems like the only way going forward. Stopping bots, scalpers and miners is a loosing game.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,548
10,171
126
The goal was to make $250 profit on it. Plain and simple.
Is there something wrong with that, when it's a non-essential, luxury good? Sell it for what the market will bear, no?

If you bought a house for $100,000, and three years later, there was in influx of population into your town, and you could sell it for $300,000 and move into "the country", wouldn't you, if you wanted to move? Or would you prefer that town officials said that you couldn't sell your house for "market price", that it was "unfair", because you had only paid $100,000 for it?