For me it went a bit deeper. Yes, there is always information asymmetry, but there is a world of difference between that and allowing outright lying and deception. In practice consumers are powerless against outright lying, so if Governments and organisations don't actively intervene it runs rampant. Apparently does that in most organisations. The article gave examples of CEO's that didn't allow it - Gordon More and Eric Schmidt. He claimed both ran very successful organisations as a result.
That reflects what I've seen in Australia. Unlike the USA, we have very strong local consumer protection laws. If a firm lies on the box, like saying a plan is unlimited when it is not, and a government will come knocking on their door. But in web market places like ebay the government can't control overseas sellers. Lying about the size of USB Flash drives on Ebay in particular became rampant. While Ebay is much cheaper than local brick and mortar sellers for just about everything, in the end I abandoned Ebay for USB Flash and other items where fraud was rampant. So did everyone else. The market for those things on EBay just collapsed - to the detriment of everyone - buyers and sellers alike. In the end EBay stepped in by siding with the consumer far more often when disputes arose, and those products returned.
The USA worships markets. Markets only work well when the buyer and seller are both well informed. Yet, the USA doesn't enforce that. To outsiders, it's weird.
That reflects what I've seen in Australia. Unlike the USA, we have very strong local consumer protection laws. If a firm lies on the box, like saying a plan is unlimited when it is not, and a government will come knocking on their door. But in web market places like ebay the government can't control overseas sellers. Lying about the size of USB Flash drives on Ebay in particular became rampant. While Ebay is much cheaper than local brick and mortar sellers for just about everything, in the end I abandoned Ebay for USB Flash and other items where fraud was rampant. So did everyone else. The market for those things on EBay just collapsed - to the detriment of everyone - buyers and sellers alike. In the end EBay stepped in by siding with the consumer far more often when disputes arose, and those products returned.
The USA worships markets. Markets only work well when the buyer and seller are both well informed. Yet, the USA doesn't enforce that. To outsiders, it's weird.