Image Courtesy: The New York Post
There are smoke signals this week suggesting the Federal Trade Commission may be on the verge of filing an Anti-Trust Lawsuit against Amazon.
“The FTC has been skeptical about the power of big tech” The e-commerce giant is accused of favoring its own products while providing less support for outside sellers on its platform “The way Amazon does business is that is requires sellers to use Amazon’s control over logistics, transportation and advertising to get favorable placement on the site” says John Logan, a professor of Labor and Employment at San Francisco State University.
Amazon is a repeat offender: the cases include spying through door-bell cameras, child privacy rights violations and illegally enrolling consumers into paid subscriptions.
“This is something that could have a profound impact” and Logan says the possibilities are dramatic “The sanctions could involve the break-up of Amazon’s $1.4 trillion empire into constituent parts.”
The FTC & the Department of Justice have launched other investigations into the biggest companies in high technology: Alphabet’s Google, Meta’s Facebook & Apple.
With innovations moving faster by the day it seems cven cost-conscious consumers are becoming wary “There is sort of a growing unease about the power of big tech” Logan says, “the way that big tech uses consumer data, the control that big tech has.”
Amazon denies any wrongdoing.
But next week’s so-called “Last Rights” meeting is often the precursor we’re told to a lawsuit.
