Amazon's Price Check app comes under attack by small retailers

On Dec. 10, Saturday, Amazon offered customers who used Price Check app an additional 5 percent discount on up to three qualifying items on its site.

Price Check app is available for iPhone and Android smartphones.

To compare prices, users can scan the bar code, snap a picture of the item, speak its name into the mic or just type the name in a search box. Price Check instantly shows results for the same product at Amazon.com.

Price Check criticized
Though the app is great for shoppers who are hoping to avail best bargains this holiday season, this move by world's largest online retailer has drawn the ire of retail trade groups.

They allege that price check incentive encourages customers to visit local merchants, compare prices on the products to what they cost on Amazon.com, and leave stores to purchase them online from Amazon.

In its defense, Amazon argued Friday that its app is just to help shoppers get a good price on the products they are purchasing.

Senator Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican, has called this app "anti-competitive."

"Amazon's promotion -- paying consumers to visit small businesses and leave empty-handed -- is an attack on Main Street businesses that employ workers in our communities," added Snowe who is also a member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

Likewise, Jason Brewer, vice president of the Retail Industry Leaders Association, claimed, "This is an underhanded way to send shoppers online.

"This app allows Amazon to exploit a loophole that allows them to sell the exact same product as brick-and-mortar stores and not charge sales tax."

Amazon defends app
In its defense, Amazon argued Friday that its app is just to help shoppers get a good price on the products they are purchasing.

“The goal of the Price Check app is to make it as easy as possible for customers to access product information, pricing information, and customer reviews, just as they would on the Web," it said.