A case would be a high-water mark for FTC Chair Lina Khan who gained prominence criticizing the company’s dominance.
Finally. Maybe the world’s biggest store, the world’s biggest CDN and webhost, and the world’s biggest logistics network shouldn’t be under one roof.
The world’s biggest store is Walmart, the world’s biggest cdn is Akamai, and the world’s biggest logistics network is DHL.
Now now, don’t let such frivolities as facts get in the way of anything.
Ah, I was hoping these kinds of lazy, carbon-copied replies would be left on Reddit.
The complaint is likely to focus on challenges to Amazon Prime, Amazon rules that the FTC says block lower prices on competing websites, and policies the FTC believes force merchants to use Amazon’s logistics and advertising services, according to some of the people.
Relevant part of the article - they’re not going near AWS or the entertainment/filming side of things, just the retail side it looks like.
Even if Amazon loses every part of a lawsuit like this it won’t materially affect their bottom line, so the headline seems like clickbait to me.
This is anecdotal, but amazon is rarely the cheapest place to shop nowadays, even with prime shipping
It tends to be the same as anywhere else. The only reason to use it is the flexibility they offer with delivery dates with Prime.
No questions asked returns are probably the single largest reason to still bother with Amazon.
Which they’re getting rid of lol
Good. Of all the big tech companies, Amazon is most in need of breaking up. They own:
- eCommerce
- Advertising
- Delivery (delivered by Amazon)
- Product Creation (kindle, kindle fire, etc)
- AWS. Cloud infrastructure—the monster in the room and most likely to be broken off.
- Content. purchase of eBooks, music, movies, etc
- Publishing (eBooks)
I hope they do get broken up as well as the other big tech companies. It’s the best thing for all of us, the consumers.
Lina Khan’s stewardship of the FTC has been one of high-profile failures, clumsily targeting big companies over things that are, in fact, legal. It’s like she thinks she’s a senator trying to win political points with cheap, lazy shots rather than being the head of a wonky enforcement agency. Fresh after failing to block Microsoft’s purchase of Activision, she’s now targeting Prime, a service that consumers overwhelmingly actually like. I have no doubt that Amazon likely has violated antitrust law in some ways, but I have no faith in Khan’s FTC to actually target the legitimate violations with boring, relatively minor solutions. They’ll overshoot and bungle the whole thing, yet again.
The problem is that while consumers may like Prime it uses its market dominance to control retailers and producers. That’s exactly what anti-trust was designed to do since Carnegie.
Good. Do Meta & Google next.
What about Microsoft? Being on 95% of PCs still after 30 years seems pretty monopolistic to me, and we’ve just been ignoring that since the late 90s. They even dragged Bill into court over it, but nothing ever came of it.
The cynic in me:
“Prime Video and Music streaming will no longer be bundled with Amazon Prime membership. But you’ll still pay the same amount every year, and pay more if you want those services back. It’s a win for everybody!”
