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<\/div>\nThe U.S. Federal Trade Commission filed a long awaited antitrust lawsuit against Amazon.com on Tuesday, and asked the court to consider forcing the online retailer to sell assets as the government pressed on with its fight to rein in Big Tech\u2019s domination of the internet.<\/span><\/p>\n The FTC said that Amazon restricts retailers on its marketplace from discounting, which stifled competition, and forced sellers to use its \u2018fulfillment service,\u2019 a reference to its nationwide network of delivery vans and warehouses, which some critics say should be hived off from Amazon\u2019s web business.<\/span><\/p>\n The lawsuit had been expected after years of complaints that Amazon.com and other tech giants abused their dominance of search, social media and online retailing to become gate keepers on the most lucrative aspects of the internet.<\/p>\n The lawsuit, which was joined by 17 state attorneys general, follows a four-year investigation and federal lawsuits filed against Alphabet\u2019s Google and Meta Platforms\u2019 Facebook.<\/p>\n The FTC said that it was asking the court to issue a permanent injunction ordering Amazon.com to stop its unlawful conduct. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Seattle, where Amazon is based.<\/p>\n \u201cLeft unchecked, Amazon will continue its illegal course of conduct to maintain its monopoly power,\u201d the FTC said in its complaint which asked the court \u201cto put an end to Amazon\u2019s illegal course of conduct, pry loose Amazon\u2019s monopolistic control, deny Amazon the fruits of its unlawful practices, and restore the lost promise of competition.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The FTC complaint asked for the court to consider \u201cany preliminary or permanent equitable relief, including but not limited to structural relief, necessary to restore fair competition.\u201d<\/p>\n Structural relief in antitrust jargon generally means a company sells an asset, such as a part of its business.<\/p>\n Amazon said that the FTC lawsuit was wrongheaded and would hurt consumers by leading to higher prices and slower deliveries.<\/p>\n \u201cThe practices the FTC is challenging have helped to spur competition and innovation across the retail industry, and have produced greater selection, lower prices, and faster delivery speeds for Amazon customers and greater opportunity for the many businesses that sell in Amazon\u2019s store,\u201d said David Zapolsky, Amazon\u2019s general counsel.<\/p>\n Amazon shares were down 3.3%, although some investors saw upside.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cEither way, the shareholders win. If FTC loses its status quo, if company breaks up, the sum of the parts is greater than the whole as the AWS (cloud) business will command a very high multiple. Analysts will figure this out soon, but for now it\u2019s \u2018shoot first, ask questions later,’\u201d said Thomas Hayes, chairman at Great Hill Capital.<\/span><\/p>\n The FTC said that Amazon, founded in 1994 and worth more than $1 trillion, punished sellers that sought to offer prices that were lower than Amazon\u2019s by making it difficult for consumers to find the seller on Amazon\u2019s platform.<\/p>\n Other allegations include that Amazon gave preference to its own products on its platforms over competitors also on the platform.<\/p>\n \u2018MONOPOLY POWER\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n FTC Chair Lina Khan said that Amazon had used illegal tactics to fend off companies that would have risen to challenge its monopoly.<\/p>\n \u201cAmazon is now exploiting that monopoly power to harm its customers, both the tens of millions of families that shop on Amazon\u2019s platform and the hundreds of thousands of sellers that use Amazon to reach them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Khan, while a law student, wrote about Amazon.com\u2019s dominance in online retailing for \u201cThe Yale Law Journal\u201d and was on the staff of the House committee that wrote a report issued in 2020 that advocated reining in four tech giants<\/a>: Amazon.com, Apple AAPL.O<\/span>, Google and Facebook.<\/p>\n Amazon\u2019s critics welcomed the lawsuit.<\/p>\n \u201cNo corporation has ever centralized this much power across so many crucial sectors. Left unchecked, Amazon\u2019s power to dictate and control threatens the rule of law and our ability to maintain open, democratically governed markets,\u201d said Stacy Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, which has pushed for the government to act against Amazon.<\/p>\n The need to take action against Big Tech has been one of the few ideas that Democrats and Republicans have agreed on. During the Trump administration which ended in 2021, the Justice Department and FTC opened probes into Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon.<\/p>\n The Justice Department has sued Google twice \u2013 once under Republican Donald Trump regarding its search business and a second time on advertising technology since Democratic President Joe Biden took office. The FTC sued Facebook during the Trump administration and Biden\u2019s FTC has pressed forward with the lawsuit.<\/p>\n Photo: (AP Photo\/Alex Brandon, File)<\/em><\/p>\n Topics<\/span> Lawsuits<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Was this article valuable?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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