FTC readies lawsuit that could break up Amazon
FTC readies lawsuit that could break up Amazon
A case would be a high-water mark for FTC Chair Lina Khan who gained prominence criticizing the company’s dominance.
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 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.
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!"
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.
Amazon Prime, which began as a subscription for unlimited free shipping, is also expected to be a target, some of the people said. Prime has evolved to include books, music and video streaming. The FTC is concerned that the bundle of services is used to illegally cement the company’s market power.
The FTC is also expected to claim that Amazon steers sellers to its own logistics services, which include shipping and warehousing, by rewarding them with better placement on the site, and punishing them when they don’t
Amazon’s rapidly growing digital advertising business will also likely be targeted, some of the people said. The agency is concerned Amazon forces merchants to buy ads in order to get better placement in customer search results.
Sounds like there's only some very minor restructuring even on the table here. The worst case scenario for Amazon is going to be getting forced to unbundle certain bundled services. I'd definitely like to see that, but I also don't imagine it would seriously threaten Amazon's hegemony, unless they're forced to pay major fines in proportion to the filthy lucre the service bundling has caused. It does not sound like anyone is telling Amazon they need to spin off parts of their business. Just unbundle some products.
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.
I would love this to actually do something, but AintNothinGonnaHappen.gif
Here's hoping, but I doubt it.