Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., joined the “Big Money Show” to discuss FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan’s testimony during a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on antitrust laws and enforcement.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is reportedly planning to file an antitrust lawsuit against e-commerce giant Amazon next week, which could set off a lengthy legal battle aimed at breaking up the company, according to a report.
Politico reported that the FTC could file the lawsuit against Amazon as early as Tuesday, according to three people familiar with the matter. Details of the lawsuit are unknown and the contents of the lawsuit may change until it is officially filed. But it is expected to target a range of Amazon’s business practices that it says harm consumers and undermine competition.
The Wall Street Journal previously reported that at a meeting between Amazon and the FTC in August, the company declined to offer the FTC any concessions in the form of changing its business practices to head off a lawsuit, and that the agency did not specify which ones Any type of changes involved would be acceptable to avoid a lawsuit. The Journal reported that a source indicated that the FTC plans to file a lawsuit against Amazon in late September.
AMAZON TO MEET WITH FTC OFFICIALS AHEAD OF EXPECTED ANTITRUST COMPLAINT
A potential Federal Trade Commission lawsuit against Amazon would likely trigger a protracted legal battle that could take years to resolve. (Alejandro Martinez Velez/Europa Press via Getty Images / Getty Images)
The Journal added that some of Amazon’s business practices, such as its Fulfillment by Amazon logistics program and third-party pricing on Amazon.com, would be reviewed as part of the lawsuit, which could lead to a separation of the company’s units.
Politico noted that Amazon Prime could be a target of the lawsuit because over the years Amazon Prime has expanded beyond free shipping to include a variety of content offerings – things the FTC may see as harming competition in the market – as well as policies in the Connection with its logistics and advertising networks.
| ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMZN | AMAZON.COM INC. | 129.12 | -0.21 | -0.16% |
A possible lawsuit by the FTC against Amazon would likely trigger a lengthy legal battle that could take years to resolve, and the FTC has spent the last three years gathering evidence and interviewing witnesses.
Amazon and the FTC did not respond to requests for comment before publishing this story.
AMAZON REGISTERED CUSTOMERS WITH PRIME WITHOUT CONSENT, WHICH MADE TERMINATION DIFFICULT, FTC SAYS IN LAWSUIT
Lina Khan, chair of the Federal Trade Commission, has long criticized Amazon’s market power as undermining competition. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
In a separate complaint, the FTC said Wednesday that it had added three senior Amazon executives to an amended complaint against the company for what the agency alleges was a “year-long effort to defraud consumers of Prime without their consent.” for the program and knowingly make it more difficult.” so consumers can cancel their Prime subscriptions.”
The amended complaint also included new details about Amazon’s alleged misconduct that had been redacted in the original complaint, such as the contents of the company’s internal emails and messages, which the FTC said showed the extent to which the company and its executives were committed were aware of wrongdoing.
The FTC’s enforcement actions and the leadership of Chairwoman Lina Khan have drawn criticism from Republicans in Congress and some in the business community, which could be given new impetus by a lawsuit against Amazon. Khan has long been a critic of Amazon’s influence, authoring a 2017 Yale Law Journal article titled “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox,” in which she argued that the company had the power to engage in predatory pricing and have too much influence over various sectors to carry out business areas.
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The FTC lost a high-profile court case in July seeking to block Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of video game maker Activision, which the agency said would be anticompetitive.