Illegal monopoly on online purchases – Corriere.it

The United States has filed a lawsuit against Amazon, starting a long-awaited antitrust battle with the e-commerce giant that could change the way Americans shop. As reported The New York Times, The Federal Trade Commission and 17 states have filed a lawsuit accusing the company of illegally stifling competition. In their opinion, in fact, the company illegally founded by Jeff Bezos maintains a monopoly in the online retail sectors by crushing merchants and favoring its own services.

“The lawsuit seeks to hold Amazon accountable for these monopolistic practices and restore the lost promise of free and fair competition,” said FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan. According to charges by the Federal Trade Commission and prosecutors in New York and other US states, Amazon prevented merchants on its platform from offering lower prices elsewhere.It forced them to ship the products with its logistics if they wanted to be part of the Prime membership package. Such practices, according to the lawsuit, led to higher prices and a worse shopping experience for consumers. These actions highlight the influence of the $1.3 trillion giant company that Bezos founded in 1994. Amazon’s impact on online commerce has shaped the lives of retailers around the world and created working conditions for more than a million workers in warehouses and the Postal Service. in the United States. Also for Sunday delivery.

For its part, Amazon requested that Khan be excluded from any action related to the company, justifying the criticism that women have directed at the e-commerce giant for a long time, but to no avail. Asked about her potential integrity at a congressional hearing in 2021, Khan said she had “no financial conflicts or personal relationships with the company.”These are the reasons for which the application may be rejected under US federal laws.

And so, last June, the Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against Amazon for allegedly tricking customers into subscribing to Prime without their consent. At the time, Amazon called the allegations “false based on the facts and the law.” A month before that, in May, Amazon has agreed to pay $25 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the US Department of Justice Who accused her of violating children’s privacy laws through her Alexa voice assistant. But Amazon is being targeted on multiple fronts. legal. U.S. attorneys in California and the federal District of Columbia also filed a lawsuit over the wrongful conduct.

Under the Biden administration, top antitrust officials, including Khan and Jonathan Kanter, head of the Justice Department’s antitrust unit, have intensified their efforts to try to suppress the overwhelming power of large corporations in the United States. Kanter is suing Google because of its dominance in digital advertising, while another lawsuit is being tried in a lawsuit that accuses the company of monopolizing Internet search. The FTC is also fighting to force Meta to separate its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp from the main company. It also tried unsuccessfully to block Meta’s acquisition of virtual reality company Inside, while an attempt is underway to block Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision, after an initial defeat in court.