The FTC is coming for Big Tech again
The Federal Trade Commission and 17 state attorneys general sued Amazon on Tuesday, saying the e-commerce giant is monopolizing markets.
Yahoo Finance’s Alexis Keenan and Dan Howley report:
The lawsuit alleges that Amazon has monopolies in online marketplaces for buyers and sellers. According to the FTC, Amazon is violating U.S. antitrust laws by restricting consumer choice and preventing sellers from selling goods at lower prices elsewhere online.
“Our complaint details how Amazon used a range of punitive and coercive tactics to unlawfully maintain its monopolies,” FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan said in a statement.
“The complaint lays out detailed allegations suggesting that Amazon is now exploiting its monopoly power to enrich itself while simultaneously increasing prices and reducing service to the millions of American families who shop on its platform and the Hundreds of thousands of businesses relying on Amazon are getting worse.” They reach. The goal of today’s lawsuit is to hold Amazon accountable for these monopolistic practices and restore the lost promise of free and fair competition.”
The FTC alleges that Amazon uses anti-discounting measures that harm sellers and discourage other online retailers from offering lower prices than Amazon’s. It also said that Amazon’s requirement that sellers use its fulfillment service in order to use its Prime service makes it more expensive for sellers to list their products on other platforms.
The commission also alleges that Amazon replaces organic search results on its marketplace with paid ads that frustrate consumers and that the company influences its own products in search.
The lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction against Amazon to stop the company from “conducting unlawfully and breaking away from Amazon’s monopolistic control in order to restore competition.”
However, Amazon denied these claims.
“The practices challenged by the FTC have helped spur competition and innovation across the retail industry, resulting in greater selection, lower prices, and faster delivery speeds for Amazon customers, as well as greater opportunities for the many companies that sell in the Amazon store sell, led,” said David Zapolsky, senior vice president of global public policy and general counsel at Amazon, in a statement.
“If the FTC were to impose its will, the result would be reduced product selection, higher prices, slower deliveries for consumers and limited options for small businesses – the opposite of what antitrust law is designed to achieve.”