Amazon gets antitrust scrutiny on usage8/27/2023 ![]() ![]() Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have been pushing bipartisan legislation aiming to limit Amazon and other big tech companies, including Apple, Meta and Google, from favoring their own products and services over rivals. Critics have also lambasted increasing fees imposed on sellers, which makes it more difficult for merchants to enter the market. Earlier this year, congressional lawmakers urged the justice department to investigate if the company collects data on sellers to develop competing products and offer them more prominently on its site. It has also said it has the right to avoid highlighting products that are not priced competitively.ĭespite that defense, Amazon’s market power has been a subject of scrutiny from lawmakers and advocacy groups calling for stricter antitrust regulations. “Amazon coerces merchants into agreements that keep prices artificially high, knowing full-well that they can’t afford to say no,” Bonta said in a statement.Īmazon has said in the past that sellers set their own prices on the platform. About 2 million sellers list their products on Amazon’s third-party marketplace, accounting for 58% of the company’s retail sales. Seattle-based Amazon controls roughly 38% of online sales in the US, more than that of Walmart, eBay, Apple, Best Buy and Target combined, according to the research firm Insider Intelligence. State officials did not say how much money they are seeking. It also seeks a court order to compel Amazon to pay damages to the state for increased prices. It alleges Amazon’s policy essentially forces merchants to list higher prices on other sites, helping the retail giant maintain its e-commerce dominance.Īmong other things, the California lawsuit seeks to stop Amazon from entering into contracts with sellers that harm price competition. The suit maintains merchants that do not comply with the policy could have their products stripped from prominent listings on Amazon and face other sanctions such as suspensions or terminations of their accounts. That, in turn, harms the ability of other retailers to compete. In the lawsuit, the office of the California attorney general, Rob Bonta, said Amazon used contract provisions to in effect bar sellers from offering lower prices for products on non-Amazon sites, including on the sellers’ own websites. But officials in California believe they will not encounter a similar fate, partly due to information collected during a more than two-year investigation that involved subpoenas and interviews with sellers, Amazon’s competitors as well as current and former employees at the company. ![]()
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