LAGOS, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) – The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Amazon.com are scheduled to meet the next week in anticipation of a possibly long-awaited antitrust case against the store.
When the government decided to look into allegations of antitrust violations against Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Apple during the tenure of former President Donald Trump, the FTC started looking into the companies.
The business has come under fire for, among other things, purportedly favoring its own items on its platform and disfavoring independent vendors. Amazon has refuted allegations of impropriety.
According to a different source, Amazon is anticipated to argue against the FTC bringing an antitrust lawsuit against the corporation during the talks with the commissioners.
After extensive investigations, the FTC frequently consults with businesses before determining whether to pursue a lawsuit.
Lina Khan claimed in a Yale Law Journal paper titled “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox” that the usual antitrust focus on pricing was insufficient to establish the antitrust damages caused by Amazon in 2017, just before she was elected FTC head.
A large number of detractors have accused Amazon of doing a variety of things, including favouring its items above those of independent sellers on the Amazon marketplace and compelling Prime merchants to use Amazon’s logistics and shipping services.
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Other opponents claim that Amazon overstepped its authority as a gatekeeper by forbidding major competitors from running advertisements against its items on the Amazon platform and by utilizing below-cost pricing on goods and services to retain consumers, including Prime.
Additionally, the corporation, which employs around 1.5 million people worldwide, has been charged with abusing its position of authority over workers and driving down pay.
A House of Representatives subcommittee issued a significant report that examined how such corporations dominate their sectors following the opening of investigations by the Trump Justice Department and FTC into Alphabet’s Google, Facebook of Meta, Apple, and Amazon.
Google has been sued twice by the Justice Department, once for its search business and once for advertising technology. Meta’s Facebook has been sued by the FTC. All of the cases have not yet been tried in court.
In a lawsuit filed in June, the FTC claimed that Amazon had illegally signed up millions of customers for its premium Amazon Prime subscription program and made it difficult for them to unsubscribe. The FTC’s assertions, according to Amazon, are “false on the facts and the law.”
The FTC stated on May 31 that it had reached a settlement with Amazon’s Ring doorbell camera company for $5.8 million (approximately Rs. 48 crore), after the agency claimed that some consumers had been spied on using the cameras.
Amazon also agreed to pay $25 million (approximately Rs. 206 crore) in May to settle FTC claims that it violated children’s privacy rights by failing to erase recordings made by the Alexa virtual assistant at parents’ requests and retaining them longer than required.