News TP-Link under DOJ investigation for alleged predatory pricing practices and national security concerns

[Admin]

The U.S. DOJ launched an antitrust investigation on TP-Link, just as the U.S. Commerce Department continues its probe on the company's impact to American national security.

TP-Link under DOJ investigation for alleged predatory pricing practices and national security concerns : Read more

 

[A Stoner]

It is not hard to undercut the prices of competitors when the competitors are selling wifi units for thousands of dollars.

Netgear Orbi 3 pack for $1800 and additional satellites $700. At those kinds of prices, of course there is going to be undercutting. And no, I do not think they are taking a loss!

 

[hotaru251]

investigating whether the company achieved this through predatory pricing, wherein it sells goods at a loss to obtain a monopoly. Once it achieves that goal, it would significantly raise its prices to maximize profits at the expense of the consumer.

....if they even try this might as well also go after PSN/MS & other big names who have all sold at a loss for many yrs just to gain userbase and then raised prices :|

 

[wakuwaku]

I think the main issue is that all these upper echelons in the USA do not do any real research. They just: CHINA!!! NOPE!!!.

While TP-Link is cheaper than higher end brands, but thats the point. They are just cheaper. In fact with TP-Link pricing I would consider them a middle tier brand, not really a cheap good value for money brand. There are cheaper China good for value money brands out there compared to TP-Link, that if TP-Link is suspicious, then what about those brands then that undercut TP-Link while offering the same or better hardware and software and warranty package with their networking gear.

These Americans seriously need to properly look through their Best Buys and Walmarts and Microcenters and Amazons. Not just read Tom's Hardware that only review rich people stuff.

 

[jlake3]

Kinda baffled how they plan to make “unfair pricing practices” stick. They’re not the absolute cheapest routers you can buy, but while (in my experience/opinion) they are the lowest price option with a reliable brick-and-mortar presence and the kind of corporate presence to match, they’re not that much cheaper than Asus, while Netgear can be kinda out-to-lunch on pricing.

 

[thestryker]

After having looked at SBC routers and the offerings from small companies like Gl.iNet it seems safe to say TP-Link is only cheaper than the likes of Asus/Netgear because they have lower profit margins. Netgear could have still been king of the castle if they didn't have such outlandish pricing most of the time.

 

[Notton]

Yeah, I echo the sentiments here.
TP-link only seems cheaper because everyone else is astronomical.

The only real concern with TP-link is firmware update frequency, product lifetime support, and any security issues that crop up between them.
I'm surprised Asus still regularly updates the firmware for my AC68U.

 

[redboy66]

That market is too competitive to maintain a monopoly and raise prices.
Today's share could plummet if prices are raised.

 

[magbarn]

It is not hard to undercut the prices of competitors when the competitors are selling wifi units for thousands of dollars.

Netgear Orbi 3 pack for $1800 and additional satellites $700. At those kinds of prices, of course there is going to be undercutting. And no, I do not think they are taking a loss!

I agree. How in the hell do WiFi routers cost more than full Blown PC’s with monitors? That’s some serious profit or poor BOM costs.

 

[JamesJones44]

It is not hard to undercut the prices of competitors when the competitors are selling wifi units for thousands of dollars.

Netgear Orbi 3 pack for $1800 and additional satellites $700. At those kinds of prices, of course there is going to be undercutting. And no, I do not think they are taking a loss!

It's easy to undercut the competition when they do all the R&D for you and you just clone their products. There, fixed it for you.

 

[George³]

when they do all the R&D for you

Is this true? Netgear make and spend for all r&d and cheaper trademarks make clones?

 

[Elusive Ruse]

It's easy to undercut the competition when they do all the R&D for you and you just clone their products. There, fixed it for you.

I agree to an extent, still, Netgear prices are way higher than what they should reasonably be.

 

[jp7189]

Weird that all the chatter is about price. The issue is their devices were used in a botnet by a state sponsored hacker group - identified by Microsoft last October. The question that's worth investigating: is this an accidental security flaw that the hackers took advantage of without tplink's knowledge or was it an intentional backdoor.

I see the pricing talk as avenue to potentially block the sale of devices while the security investigation is underway, but not so much the key issue.

 

[EzzyB]

It is not hard to undercut the prices of competitors when the competitors are selling wifi units for thousands of dollars.

Netgear Orbi 3 pack for $1800 and additional satellites $700. At those kinds of prices, of course there is going to be undercutting. And no, I do not think they are taking a loss!

It's also not hard to pay attention to security notices and see who leads the pack in vulnerabilities. TP-Link by a long mile. No one interested in security would have one in their home.

If they aren't subsidized by the Chinese then they are an awful, awful maker of home networking products. Perhaps it's just negligence, but it does look awful suspicious.

 

[A Stoner]

It's also not hard to pay attention to security notices and see who leads the pack in vulnerabilities. TP-Link by a long mile. No one interested in security would have one in their home.

If they aren't subsidized by the Chinese then they are an awful, awful maker of home networking products. Perhaps it's just negligence, but it does look awful suspicious.

I'm more moaning about the unbelievable prices that are currently charged for a wifi mesh system these days than talking to the security issues. Me personally I have AT&T gigabit service and use their devices and they cover the whole home without issue.

I tried the $1000+ netgear systems, bought it from Costco, and it never worked, replaced the unit 5 times! We could get them to mesh if we hard wired the units together, but the moment the hard wire was removed and we moved the satellites to their respective locations, within 30 feet of one another and with direct line of sight, they refused to work. I even bought several 50 foot cat cables so I could get them working in situ and then disconnect the wires and they still lost contact the moment the hardwire links were removed. I cannot just have wires laying all over the place, that is the reasoning for wifi!

 

[JamesJones44]

Is this true? Netgear make and spend for all r&d and cheaper trademarks make clones?

Netgear, Asus, Ubiquiti, etc...