FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon
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Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon
#2This doesn't seem to be the right tack. There's legitimate reasons to favor sellers that use your own logistics. Hard to see that as anti-competitive. Even harder to see why they picked this issue when there's seemingly many more blatant ones going on.
Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon
#3This doesn't seem to be the right tack. There's legitimate reasons to favor sellers that use your own logistics. Hard to see that as anti-competitive. Even harder to see why they picked this issue when there's seemingly many more blatant ones going on.
Not only that, I'm sure most customers PREFER sellers that use Amazon's logistics. I sure do. It's more trustworthy, you know the product exists at an amazon warehouse, faster shipping, etc.
Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon
#4This doesn't seem to be the right tack. There's legitimate reasons to favor sellers that use your own logistics. Hard to see that as anti-competitive. Even harder to see why they picked this issue when there's seemingly many more blatant ones going on.
The cynic in me says it's because this way they can say "we tried" and not actually do anything.
Antitrust lawsuits died the day MS got a slap on the wrist, and we've been paying for it as a society ever since. I really doubt the authenticity of this effort, but I also lack the expertise to judge properly so maybe I shouldn't be so pessimistic.
Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon
#5This doesn't seem to be the right tack. There's legitimate reasons to favor sellers that use your own logistics. Hard to see that as anti-competitive. Even harder to see why they picked this issue when there's seemingly many more blatant ones going on.
> Even harder to see why they picked this issue when there's seemingly many more blatant ones going on.
I know nothing about their thinking here, but very often when you see enforcement agencies focusing on something that seems like a lesser problem in the basket of problems, it's because they're selecting the specific point they feel they can win in court on.
What wins in court is related to what you can prove, not necessarily related to what the worst offense is.
Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon
#6This doesn't seem to be the right tack. There's legitimate reasons to favor sellers that use your own logistics. Hard to see that as anti-competitive. Even harder to see why they picked this issue when there's seemingly many more blatant ones going on.
The cynic in me says it's because this way they can say "we tried" and not actually do anything. Antitrust lawsuits died the day MS got a slap on the wrist, and we've been paying for it as a society ever since. I really doubt the authenticity of this effort, but I also lack the expertise to judge properly so maybe I shouldn't be so pessimistic.
I don't think it's the cynical take, the current FTC chair seriously believes that the FTC should be doing more antitrust enforcement and the paper that got her noticed specifically called out Amazon (IIRC the amazon/diapers.com conflict).
She runs into challenges because she has a somewhat novel theory of antitrust. This causes conflict between the long-standing staffers (who both want to win cases and seem to dislike the new direction) and with judges (who don't seem to be buying her theories).
Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon
#7A lot of the beef with Amazon seems to be "welcome to retail". I don't think Walmart even has third-party logistics for its stores -- or if it does it's of the "hire contractors and squeeze them hard" variety.
Personally I've found the customer experience of non-FBA merchants on amazon is often pretty bad: long shipping times and weird return policies. This gets at a sort of core problem with this: where is the line between anticompetitive behavior and just "making good products". I was very happy when google did it's hotels thing, the hotel aggregators are by-and-large unpleasant. And as much as there was wailing and gnashing of teeth here about amp, when I was doing a mobile search I would preferentially click amp sites -- they tended to work much better.
Of course all of this depends on what specifically the FTC is arguing, and we won't see that until they actually file.
Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
The cynic in me says it's because this way they can say "we tried" and not actually do anything. Antitrust lawsuits died the day MS got a slap on the wrist, and we've been paying for it as a society ever since. I really doubt the authenticity of this effort, but I also lack the expertise to judge properly so maybe I shouldn't be so pessimistic.
I don't think it's the cynical take, the current FTC chair seriously believes that the FTC should be doing more antitrust enforcement and the paper that got her noticed specifically called out Amazon (IIRC the amazon/diapers.com conflict). She runs into challenges because she has a somewhat novel theory of antitrust. This causes conflict between the long-standing staffers (who both want to win cases and seem to disli…
Her theory of antitrust goes back 100+ years. It’s that there should be robust competition and when firms get too large and powerful they should be broken up.
The alternate theory is the novel one. That theory basically sums up to “no we shouldn’t” and also “after a few years in public service I am happy to announce I have taken a role at a large monopolistic company and can now afford a summer home.”
For more info read this book: https://mattstoller.com/
Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think it's the cynical take, the current FTC chair seriously believes that the FTC should be doing more antitrust enforcement and the paper that got her noticed specifically called out Amazon (IIRC the amazon/diapers.com conflict). She runs into challenges because she has a somewhat novel theory of antitrust. This causes conflict between the long-standing staffers (who both want to win cases and seem to disli…
Her theory of antitrust goes back 100+ years. It’s that there should be robust competition and when firms get too large and powerful they should be broken up. The alternate theory is the novel one. That theory basically sums up to “no we shouldn’t” and also “after a few years in public service I am happy to announce I have taken a role at a large monopolistic company and can now afford a summer home.” For more info r…
Are using novel as in newer or novel as in different than widely considered at current?
Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon
#10I feel like they are up against a new lawsuit daily. First all the class actions regarding fake prime sales and hard to cancel subscriptions, now this.
Although this one I believe is more of an attempted power play by the FTC, the others not so much.