The Federal Trade Commission along with 17 U.S. states accused Amazon on Tuesday of protecting its online retail monopoly by pressuring merchants and favoring its own services, reports The New York Times.
The FTC and state attorneys general shared that Amazon had stopped merchants on its platform from offering lower prices through other channels and forced them to ship products with Amazon’s logistic service to be a part of the Prime subscription bundle.
“Today’s lawsuit seeks to hold Amazon to account for these monopolistic practices and restore the lost promise of free and fair competition,” said Lina Khan, the chair of the F.T.C. Khan has a track record of combatting Amazon’s monopolistic characteristics. In 2020, staff on the House Judiciary Committee founded by Khan noted that “Amazon functions as a gatekeeper for ecommerce.”
Critics of Amazon note that it has forced competitors into price wars while amplifying its private label products.
The online retailer has made some changes to address some of the concerns. The company shared it is dialing back its private label brands program, and in June, announced it would reopen enrollment for a program to let merchants sell their products as Prime-eligible while handling the deliveries themselves rather than using Amazon’s warehouses. Full Story (Subscription Required)
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