Is Amazon Violating U.S. Antitrust Laws?
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Is Amazon Violating U.S. Antitrust Laws?
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Re: Is Amazon Violating U.S. Antitrust Laws?
#2What about Uber and Lyft?
Aren't they known to operate at a loss to undercut the competition, and couldn't taxi drivers bring them to court for that?
Re: Is Amazon Violating U.S. Antitrust Laws?
#3What about Uber and Lyft? Aren't they known to operate at a loss to undercut the competition, and couldn't taxi drivers bring them to court for that?
Article was written about a specific incident rather than every incident.
Re: Is Amazon Violating U.S. Antitrust Laws?
#4What about Uber and Lyft? Aren't they known to operate at a loss to undercut the competition, and couldn't taxi drivers bring them to court for that?
The article touches on this briefly
>The paper could also spur the Federal Trade Commission to make a simple rule change that would lay bare Amazon’s practices. And, it could blow up a scheme that Uber, Lime, and numerous other startups have been accused of undertaking.
Re: Is Amazon Violating U.S. Antitrust Laws?
#5What about Uber and Lyft? Aren't they known to operate at a loss to undercut the competition, and couldn't taxi drivers bring them to court for that?
That seems like you could easily circumvent by claiming the underpriced service is a loss leader, routing customers towards more profitable upsells at other points in the relationship. Printers and toner, handles and razors, banks and toasters.
Re: Is Amazon Violating U.S. Antitrust Laws?
#6What about Uber and Lyft? Aren't they known to operate at a loss to undercut the competition, and couldn't taxi drivers bring them to court for that?
according to the article, if the company is operate at loss and it benefit customers, it is fine!
"Both of these outcomes reflect consumers failing to share in Amazon’s bounty, which is key for current antitrust law. Right now, anti-competitive conduct like predatory pricing is judged under the “consumer welfare standard,” which has been interpreted to mean simply whether a market dominated by a single company results in higher or lower prices. But even though prices are the same on Amazon, consumers are arguably missing out, Sussman explains, because they’re not benefiting from Amazon’s soaring profits. “It’s illegal and even the most conservative neoclassical thinker would agree,” he says."
Re: Is Amazon Violating U.S. Antitrust Laws?
#7What about Uber and Lyft? Aren't they known to operate at a loss to undercut the competition, and couldn't taxi drivers bring them to court for that?
Maybe. But the fact that Uber and Lyft are actively competing (both with taxis and each other) using that model would be a pretty strong argument to the contrary.
At the end of the day, antitrust legislation exists to protect consumers and markets, not established businesses. Prices under cost, in isolation, pretty much can't be antitrust violations by definition. They have to be used to effect a harm to the market in other ways.
Re: Is Amazon Violating U.S. Antitrust Laws?
#8What about Uber and Lyft? Aren't they known to operate at a loss to undercut the competition, and couldn't taxi drivers bring them to court for that?
according to the article, if the company is operate at loss and it benefit customers, it is fine! "Both of these outcomes reflect consumers failing to share in Amazon’s bounty, which is key for current antitrust law. Right now, anti-competitive conduct like predatory pricing is judged under the “consumer welfare standard,” which has been interpreted to mean simply whether a market dominated by a single company result…
I'd argue consumers are benefiting greatly from Amazon's profits. They have overall re-invested those profits into other businesses that benefit consumers.
Ex: Purchased Whole Foods and have brought down those prices overall plus building Amazon Go stores which offer a much better consumer experience than traditional grocery. Amazon's Web Services platform has leveled the playing field and enabled many startups. Amazon has pressured almost all other retailers online & offline to offer free or cheap delivery which is great for consumers. Walmart would likely never have done this without pressure from Amazon.
Re: Is Amazon Violating U.S. Antitrust Laws?
#9What about Uber and Lyft? Aren't they known to operate at a loss to undercut the competition, and couldn't taxi drivers bring them to court for that?
according to the article, if the company is operate at loss and it benefit customers, it is fine! "Both of these outcomes reflect consumers failing to share in Amazon’s bounty, which is key for current antitrust law. Right now, anti-competitive conduct like predatory pricing is judged under the “consumer welfare standard,” which has been interpreted to mean simply whether a market dominated by a single company result…
That's ridiculous. There is no law that mandates consumers get a specific percentage of the economic surplus. Amazon is worth about a trillion dollars. Amazon has 100 million prime customers, not to mention all the non Prime customers. With these very generous assumptions NOT in Amazon's favor, $10K equity per prime customer is totally on par with the amount of lifetime consumer surplus a Prime customer enjoys thanks to Amazon existing, possibly in gasoline and shipping savings alone! Amazon probably does anti competitive things, and competing vendors and their low skill employees and contactors maybe earning less, bit it's laughable to claim that customers are suffering.
Re: Is Amazon Violating U.S. Antitrust Laws?
#10Yes, via vertical integration[1] - this should be obvious to anyone outside of the FTC[2].
[1] For people unaware of Amazon's practice of pushing out middlemen who conduct high volumes of business: http://fortune.com/2016/04/20/amazon-copies-merchants/
[2] People inside of the FTC are almost certainly aware, but happily continue to shove their fingers in their ears and sing "la la la I can't hear you la la la".