The US competition authority FTC has filed another lawsuit against the online giant Amazon. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is now targeting the US company’s “marketplace business” and accusing it of having a monopoly position. The antitrust lawsuit by the FTC and 17 US states was filed in federal court in Seattle, the agency announced on Tuesday in New York. It accuses Amazon of excluding competitors from services in the online marketplace business and thus suppressing competition.
Is Amazon a monopolist?
The authority also accuses the company of forcing retailers to use its own logistics and delivery services in order to be prominently placed on the platform in return. Amazon also penalizes sellers who offer their goods cheaper on competing websites. Amazon is a monopolist and uses its dominant market position in such a way that buyers and sellers have to pay more for worse service, said FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan in a press conference. Sellers paid Amazon $1 for every $2 earned. Amazon criticized the FTC lawsuit, calling it incorrect on the facts and the law, and said it would litigate it in court.
The Amazon marketplace is a core part of the online group’s e-commerce business. Here, third parties sell their products and pay Amazon a fee per item sold for using the platform. There is also the option of using the various Amazon services in logistics and delivery or advertising for a fee. The marketplace now accounts for more than half of sales in Amazon’s online business. Sellers have been complaining for years that this is a rather one-sided relationship and that Amazon enforces its rules on its own and is slow to respond to complaints in return.
Fourth antitrust lawsuit against Amazon
Amazon Senior Vice President David Zapolsky criticized the lawsuit as making it clear “that the FTC has radically departed from its mission to protect consumers and competition.” He says the practices challenged by the FTC have helped promote competition and innovation in retail. According to Zapolsky, they have “led to greater selection, lower prices and faster delivery times for Amazon customers and opened up greater opportunities for the many companies that sell on Amazon’s store.” If the FTC gets its way, it would result in fewer product choices, higher prices, slower deliveries for consumers and fewer options for small businesses.
The antitrust lawsuit is the fourth filed by the FTC against Amazon. The authority has been investigating the company’s business practices for years. Most recently, the authority, which oversees both competition law and consumer protection in the USA, sued Amazon in connection with its paid Prime subscriptions, which are difficult to cancel. In two other lawsuits, the FTC accused the company of a lack of data protection in its Alexa voice assistant and its Ring surveillance cameras and alarms. Amazon recently agreed to fines of a good $30 million, but maintained that it disagreed with the FTC on the matter.
The FTC’s current complaint states that Amazon is not violating the law because it is big. Rather, the group is “exhibiting exclusionary behavior that prevents current competitors from growing and new competitors from emerging.” “Our complaint details how Amazon used a variety of punitive and coercive tactics to unlawfully maintain its monopolies,” Khan said, according to the statement. The lawsuit aims to “hold Amazon accountable for these monopolistic practices” and restore free and fair competition. (dpa)