If there isn't a law that bans marketplaces from competing against the vendors that operate on that marketplace, then there should be one.
FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon
51–60 of 116 posts
Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon
#52With Temu coming from China to compete with Amazon, and the US regulators going full anti-China recently, I'm really interested to see whether these actions against Amazon get pushback from the top of government, and ultimately get stalled.
A lot of the anti-china stuff is coming from the top, the CHIPS act is a great example. I think taking down Amazon and maybe busting them up ala AT&T would be a feather in Biden's cap with the liberals and the right thing to do. Then they need to go after Google and Facebook.
> A lot of the anti-china stuff is coming from the top, the CHIPS act is a great example.
I mean... TSMC is based in Taiwan, and if China were ever to invade they'd have a vested interest in kneecapping American businesses that currently rely on that chip supply (AMD, Apple, and Qualcomm all come to mind) -- for any of a list of reasons ranging from turnabout over the whole Huawei thing to just the obvious incentive to turn that manufacturing capacity toward producing a domestic supply.
In that context, building up domestic suppliers of our own is just a reasonable precaution.
> I think taking down Amazon and maybe busting them up ala AT&T would be a feather in Biden's cap with the liberals and the right thing to do. Then they need to go after Google and Facebook.
But also yes, I'm with you on this wholeheartedly.
I'd further add, given we have a history of breaking up telecom companies specifically for amassing too much market power that you as a consumer to avoid them, that we should probably turn the same to most ISPs. Also that it's baffling that no one's gone after Apple over iMessage, what with the way it actively makes text chains worse the moment anyone involved isn't a customer of theirs.
Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
I also don't really get the desire to defend them even if you were a loyal fan. Outside of AWS, none of their services are good anymore and have deteriorated. The only reason people think Prime is even valuable is because of the quantity > quality overriding people's rational. Amazon (the storefront) has turned into Aliexpress but with the shoddiest random brands ever like XYGHY selling you a product they're dropship…
Prime shipping has degraded to me to the point that 20% and rising of the orders are late, and that’s with a recent warehouse in the same city.
...and of course our state AGs and the FTC are doing nothing about holding Amazon accountable for claiming prime = 1 day shipping.
Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon
#54How about fake reviews? That's a whole industry deceiving people with Amazon's blessing. I can't even fathom the economic impact of the practice over the years.
And another one: Amazon Basics. Free market research with the data from your paying sellers, to then enter a market with a product you know will sell, in a position of dominance. Much like they do with open source in AWS.
They should get hit with billions, but one can only hope.
Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon
#55With Temu coming from China to compete with Amazon, and the US regulators going full anti-China recently, I'm really interested to see whether these actions against Amazon get pushback from the top of government, and ultimately get stalled.
Oh neat. I didn’t know who Temu was or why I was getting blasted with their ads.
They keep trying to sell me dildo headware.
Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon
#56How about fake reviews? That's a whole industry deceiving people with Amazon's blessing. I can't even fathom the economic impact of the practice over the years. And another one: Amazon Basics. Free market research with the data from your paying sellers, to then enter a market with a product you know will sell, in a position of dominance. Much like they do with open source in AWS. They should get hit with billions, bu…
Curious that a competitor has not sprung up to address this problem head-on...
Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
I also don't really get the desire to defend them even if you were a loyal fan. Outside of AWS, none of their services are good anymore and have deteriorated. The only reason people think Prime is even valuable is because of the quantity > quality overriding people's rational. Amazon (the storefront) has turned into Aliexpress but with the shoddiest random brands ever like XYGHY selling you a product they're dropship…
Prime shipping has degraded to me to the point that 20% and rising of the orders are late, and that’s with a recent warehouse in the same city.
I might well be one of the very few people in the thread who can still benefit from prime shipping.
We have an Amazon prime depot about 10 minute walk from our house. The drivers can schedule their deliveries to us either to the beginning or end of their routes, and that shows: we get prime shipping for almost everything. In fact, trying to batch individual items into fewer deliveries is not necessarily even an option anymore. It's rare that I need the order in for next day, and I'd be happy to have the whole batch delivered in 2-3 days. But no, I get a small batch on next day, one item on day 2 and two more on day 3. There is no - or very rarely - option to select "all of these in one go, on day 3, please".
Then again, I live in UK, in the weird place that's both in London and in Kent at the same time. That said, when we do need next-day delivery, it tends to be available for about 50% of the time.
Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon
#58Earlier 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.
> the day MS got a slap on the wrist That "slap on the wrist" was sufficient to prevent MS from owning the browser.
It prevented a lot more than that. They were not able to bundle software where Apple was able to include many things by default.
Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon
#59I am amazed to see people defending AMZN in these threads. They are so obviously monopolistic with such a plethora of problems with the way the treat consumers, workers, businesses, and the planet. More power to the FTC -- just wish they had taken these actions sooner.
I don’t think I’m defending Amazon so much as noting that Amazon does not have a monopoly on retail or even e-commerce.
I don’t think issues should be picking sides so much as seeking the truth.
Amazon had 38% of online retail market share [0] and only 9% of total retail market share [1]. So I think it’s going to be hard to show antitrust violations without some price collusion.
[0] https://www.statista.com/statistics/274255/market-share-of-t... [1] https://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2022/amazon-and-walmart-m...
Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon
#60I am amazed to see people defending AMZN in these threads. They are so obviously monopolistic with such a plethora of problems with the way the treat consumers, workers, businesses, and the planet. More power to the FTC -- just wish they had taken these actions sooner.
I don’t think I’m defending Amazon so much as noting that Amazon does not have a monopoly on retail or even e-commerce. I don’t think issues should be picking sides so much as seeking the truth. Amazon had 38% of online retail market share [0] and only 9% of total retail market share [1]. So I think it’s going to be hard to show antitrust violations without some price collusion. [0] https://www.statista.com/statistic…
Anitrust actions do not require the presence of a monopoly.
Rather, they addresses situations where companies unreasonably exert power to lessen competition.
The idea is to prevent monopolies from forming in the first place.