[ April 18, 2024 ]
First Google, now Amazon. Google I get but Amazon? Why Amazon and Not Facebook? I don’t get why Amazon is being targeted. This comment sums it up nicely:
“It’s pretty clear that Google deserves a serious look from the antitrust people, as does Facebook.
I don’t really see where Amazon deserves a look. Any antitrust pros will tell you that size alone is not against antitrust principles. I just don’t see where Amazon has engaged in anti-competitive behavior. They have a very small share of overall retail, like what, 1%?
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Sure, they have half of online sales, but over 30% of total volume is Amazon Marketplace, which represents millions of small merchants.
Amazon has quite demonstrably lowered prices and increased convenience, which is the opposite of anti competitive behavior.
So what’s the angle of attack for the FTC? Seems like the DOJ got the better deal here.
And … who’s going after Facebook?”
Amazon could face heightened antitrust scrutiny under a new agreement between US regulators
Amazon could face heightened antitrust scrutiny under a new agreement between U.S. regulators that puts it under closer watch by the Federal Trade Commission, three people familiar with the matter said.
The move is the result of the FTC and the Department of Justice, the U.S. government’s leading antitrust enforcement agencies, quietly divvying up competition oversight of two of the country’s top tech companies, according to those people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the government’s work is confidential. The Justice Department is set to have more jurisdiction over Google, The Washington Post reported on Friday, paving the way for a potential investigation of the search-and-advertising giant.
The FTC’s plans for Amazon and the Justice Department’s interest in Google are not immediately clear. But the kind of arrangement brokered between the Justice Department and the FTC typically presages more serious antitrust scrutiny, the likes of which many Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill have sought out of fear that tech companies have become too big and powerful.
“If there is an active discussion of where the boundaries are, that would indicate there’s a reason for that discussion, whether it’s a new interest, study or investigation,” said Maureen Ohlhausen, a partner at the law firm Baker Botts who previously served as chair of the FTC.
The early moves from the government’s twin antitrust agencies mark the latest attempts by U.S. regulators to better supervise tech giants. Earlier this year, the FTC established a special task force it said would monitor tech and competition, including “investigating any potential anticompetitive conduct in those markets, and taking enforcement actions when warranted.”
For years, the European Union has taken the lead in probing whether Silicon Valley too easily stamps out rivals to the detriment of web users. E.U. officials are actively investigating Amazon and have repeatedly fined Google for violating its antitrust laws.
Antitrust also has become an early flash point among Democrats vying for the White House ahead of the 2020 election. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) recently threatened major investigations of Amazon, Apple and Facebook. This week, she offered early support in response to news that the Justice Department could bring such an investigation against Google.
Politicians have long raised concerns that Amazon’s dominance in online retail – as well as its growing reach across a variety of business fields – has given it too much power. It holds sway over third-party sellers on its site, who pay for advertising to compete against first-party and private-label sales by Amazon. Its low prices also have helped it draw customer spending at the expense of brick-and-mortar competitors.
The e-commerce giant sells roughly half of all online goods in the United States, but it makes up a much smaller portion of total retail sales. It has expanded into other areas, too, such as cloud computing with Amazon Web Services and grocery sales with the acquisition of Whole Foods, a deal the FTC allowed to proceed in 2017.
Google’s chief critics contend the company has acted illegally to protect its huge footprint in search and advertising as well as its newer ambitions, ranging from smart thermostats to self-driving cars. The FTC previously investigated Google but closed the matter in 2013 without breaking it up or forcing it to make major changes to its business practices.
“This should be a wake-up call to both Google and Amazon to behave themselves because it at least shows that the Justice Department and FTC are thinking about them,” said Gene Kimmelman, the president of Public Knowledge, a Washington-based consumer advocacy group.
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13 Comments
4 years ago
Amazon merit scrutiny because of the way it treats suppliers in a way that other sellers cannot. Talk to publishers – they know what Amazon demands of them.
4 years ago
It’s about time!
Time to break up Amazon and tax payers should NOT be funding cheap shipping. Other companies don’t get that kind of break and neither should Amazon. Amazon has become a tyrannical lefty monopoly.
4 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
Privatize the Schools
– commies grabbed the US education system
– just the way the National Security Council warned in 1950
– [‘NSC-68’, free online]
– privatize education
– by letting independent contractors do education
– and work under quality control guidelines
– just the way private medical care works
– the idea that commie teachers are better teachers
– is proven to be untrue
– since strongly commie cities
– have rotten education systems
4 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
Privatize the Schools
– commies grabbed the US education system
– just the way the National Security Council warned in 1950
– [‘NSC-68’, free online]
– privatize education
– by letting independent contractors do education
– and work under quality control guidelines
– just the way private medical care works
– the idea that commie teachers are better teachers
– is proven to be untrue
– since strongly commie cities
– have rotten education systems
4 years ago
There is nothing wrong with Free- Enterprise
– but monopolies are NOT free-enterprise
– and the time to trigger anti-trust action
– is when a monopoly starts to make our lives worse
– and Amazon is definitely trying to do that
– by actively and collaboratively trying to destroy competition
– and promoting tyrannical socialism wherever possible
– grabbing Washington Post was Bezo’s death knell
– because it exposed his motivations
4 years ago
Reply to
DemocracyRules
“Facebook Tumbles After FTC Opens Competition Probe”
– https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-06-03/facebook-tumbles-after-ftc-opens-competition-probe
– Rule # 22: Value-free enterprises
– will have unstable valuations
– just like the bitcoin bubble
4 years ago
Free competition MUST be enforced by law
– there is no such thing as simple ‘laissez-faire’ [let it go]
– for example, clear mortgage and debt laws
– enable home ownership
– because banks that cannot recover bad debts
– will go broke
– [just the way Chinese banks are doing right now]
– and we need banks, to buy houses, and get loans
– free-enterprise depends upon good and just laws
– and a good and just State
– depends upon free-enterprise
– to make people’s lives better:
– “But laissez-faire advocates nonetheless argued that government had an essential role in enforcing contracts as well as ensuring civil order.”
– https://www.britannica.com/topic/laissez-faire
4 years ago
Time will tell. 
German journalist Teri Schultz, DW
4 years ago
Amazon, like Google, blacklists both potential employees and merchandise for political reasons. No company should be allowed to get that big while practicing that kind of exclusion. In effect that practice makes you a predatory monopoly.
Now it’s time to add Chase Bank to the list, for closing the accounts of conservatives.
4 years ago
Reply to
jdgalt
B of A also. About ten years ago, B of A walked into a Arizona manufacturer that makes custom rifle stocks, McMillan, and told the owner in no uncertain terms that they would no longer be doing business with him even though he had been a customer for over ten or twelve years. It was right after mobama got elected. Go figure.
4 years ago
Why Amazon indeed? They have plenty of competitors, eBay, for one. Fakebook is almost the only game in town, except for Gab, which needs to go a long way before it is any kind of threat to Fakebook. I usually use e-Bay when purchasing anything but books. Amazon usually only has one seller where e-Bay has many offering the same item for different prices, mostly lower than Amazon. There is something going on behind the scenes that we mere dirt people know nothing about behind this decision.
4 years ago
Now that the tyranny of federal government control, has pierced the internet with it’s clawed toe, brace yourselves as a never ending flood of strangling regulations consume every corner and aspect of the web. Enjoy the use of ‘free’ internet now, as government fees, fines and bonds are an ensuing reality. The irony being that freedom here wasn’t exchanged for security, but for temporary lucre.
