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FTC Sues Amazon for Illegally Maintaining Monopoly Power

Discussion in 'Too Hot for Swamp Gas' started by Gatorrick22, Oct 4, 2023.

  1. Oct 4, 2023 #1
    Gatorrick22

    Gatorrick22 GC Hall of Fame

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    I have not seen any mention of this huge lawsuit... Is this bad news for consumers that enjoy the convenience of Amazon's delivery quickness and efficiency?

    What do you people here think of this lawsuit?


    Amazon’s ongoing pattern of illegal conduct blocks competition, allowing it to wield monopoly power to inflate prices, degrade quality, and stifle innovation for consumers and businesses.

    The Federal Trade Commission and 17 state attorneys general today sued Amazon.com, Inc. alleging that the online retail and technology company is a monopolist that uses a set of interlocking anticompetitive and unfair strategies to illegally maintain its monopoly power. The FTC and its state partners say Amazon’s actions allow it to stop rivals and sellers from lowering prices, degrade quality for shoppers, overcharge sellers, stifle innovation, and prevent rivals from fairly competing against Amazon.

    The complaint alleges that Amazon violates the law not because it is big, but because it engages in a course of exclusionary conduct that prevents current competitors from growing and new competitors from emerging. By stifling competition on price, product selection, quality, and by preventing its current or future rivals from attracting a critical mass of shoppers and sellers, Amazon ensures that no current or future rival can threaten its dominance. Amazon’s far-reaching schemes impact hundreds of billions of dollars in retail sales every year, touch hundreds of thousands of products sold by businesses big and small and affect over a hundred million shoppers.

    “Our complaint lays out how Amazon has used a set of punitive and coercive tactics to unlawfully maintain its monopolies,” said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan. “The complaint sets forth detailed allegations noting how Amazon is now exploiting its monopoly power to enrich itself while raising prices and degrading service for the tens of millions of American families who shop on its platform and the hundreds of thousands of businesses that rely on Amazon to reach them. Today’s lawsuit seeks to hold Amazon to account for these monopolistic practices and restore the lost promise of free and fair competition.”


    FTC Sues Amazon for Illegally Maintaining Monopoly Power
     
  2. Oct 4, 2023 #2
    Gatorrick22

    Gatorrick22 GC Hall of Fame

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    Will the FTC win this case?
     
  3. Oct 4, 2023 #3
    ursidman

    ursidman VIP Member

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    Well, as a stockholder, I’m agin it.
     
  4. Oct 4, 2023 #4
    14serenoa

    14serenoa Living in Orange and surrounded by Seminoles... VIP Member

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    Certainly many Amazon products are made in China. Does China sit on the Amazon BOD? It's a small world afterall...
     
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  5. Oct 4, 2023 #5
    ufhomerj31

    ufhomerj31 GC Legend

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    I am really anti-amazon right now. With fake reviews, cheap knock-offs using the same images/wording and ridiculous company names like JNKME or WSHUBUY. It is hard for me to find decent prodcuts. It is really down hill. I try shop at local stores instead. Don't car if they get knocked down a peg or two.
     
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  6. Oct 4, 2023 #6
    ElimiGator

    ElimiGator GC Hall of Fame

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    You’re talking about the Chinese stores. Yeah, they’re everywhere and if the store doesn’t have a Chinese name, their descriptions are a tell. “It fits you goodly, we promise all good products”. Sadly, the local stores get a lot of their $hit from China anyway.
     
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  7. Oct 4, 2023 #7
    Gatorrick22

    Gatorrick22 GC Hall of Fame

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    That's just it. When I look for a product I have to go to Amazon becasue they have several products from which to compare it to. A feature I like...

    But I never just shop them exclusively. However, if I find say a vitamin in Vitacost, Amazon seems to get that same vitamin to me faster than Vitacost does. That convenience is hard to turn down.
     
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  8. Oct 4, 2023 #8
    okeechobee

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    This is just the federal government wetting their beaks. If they actually believed Amazon was guilty of antitrust violations, they would have went after them a long time ago. What they do is allow companies like Amazon to grow into behemoths and then they pounce. There’s more “penalty” to extract the larger the behemoth is.

    Now this is not to say Amazon is free of any guilt when it comes to antitrust matters. If you look hard enough at any super large corporation, you’ll find antitrust violations. This is just the feds making sure they get their cut.
     
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  9. Oct 5, 2023 #9
    l_boy

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    There was a good NYT Daily podcast on this.

    the two issues which govt taking actions against

    1. If an Amazon seller sells a product at a lower price on a different site - the buy now button is not as prominent

    2. Due to the massive logistics / distribution investments Amazon has invested in, from a shipping perspective if you don’t use the Amazon platform it is hard to be competitive.

    Listening to it I had a hard to being sympathetic to the government’s perspective. In recent decades anti trust has moved towards less about the level of competition and more to whether it benefits the consumer (an argument first advanced by Robert Bork 40 years ago).

    I generally think the Biden administration is fecklessly going after some of these large companies with outdated theories of business and competition.
     
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  10. Oct 5, 2023 #10
    vaxcardinal

    vaxcardinal GC Hall of Fame

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    You could skip the middleman and buy from Alibaba
     
  11. Oct 5, 2023 #11
    ValdostaGatorFan

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    I've heard, can't remember where, that those weird names have to do with something about trademarks. Something about the name fast tracks the process, or something. Yeah, I know, my comment is super useful, lol.
     
    Last edited: Oct 5, 2023
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  12. Oct 5, 2023 #12
    ValdostaGatorFan

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  13. Oct 5, 2023 #13
    Gatorrick22

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    It's almost like a threat directed at Bezos to stay in line with the Dems. I wonder why?
     
  14. Oct 5, 2023 #14
    okeechobee

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    Would be pretty funny if he got red-pilled and gave them the finger like Musk did.
     
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