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FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon

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Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon

#61

Post by nilespotter »

dv_dt wrote: post #40
gochi wrote: post #34

Earlier 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 let my prime membership lapse last year and I barely notice the difference. I stopped shopping there as much and started queuing things up into batches to meet the free shipping without prime threshold. Now that threshold seems to be zero, I still get free shipping on everything. It takes a little bit longer, like 1-2 days, sometimes, that's it.

Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon

#62

Post by prepend »

lisasays wrote: post #60
prepend wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> unreasonably exert power to lessen competition.

The unreasonable part is where the monopoly power comes in.

Companies lessening competition happens all the time, it’s the monopoly aspect that triggers antitrust.

Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon

#63

Post by grimgoldgo »

prepend wrote: post #62
lisasays wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> unreasonably exert power to lessen competition. The unreasonable part is where the monopoly power comes in. Companies lessening competition happens all the time, it’s the monopoly aspect that triggers antitrust.

There are three primary antitrust laws, only one of them focuses on monopoly power in the way you describe. The Clayton and FTC acts are broader.

Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon

#64

Post by silisili »

likpok wrote: post #7

A 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…

Walmart has been working on their logistics. I haven't quite figured it out yet - most things in store they will just deliver from the store, ask for tip, etc. Some things are only available for 'shipping', but that shipping is often same day delivery, and it's apparent someone just brought it from the store. And some things are 1 day shipping, where it looks like they're moving items from a WM a couple hours away to your local store, then delivered as described above. In the latter two, tips are not even asked for.

Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon

#65

Post by sdflhasjd »

bostik wrote: post #57
dv_dt wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 optio…

What does the "end of the route" look like for you? For me, along with the worsening reliability of prime, it's just getting later and later. When first moved into this address, deliveries were generally before 3. Slowly that became 5, then 7. Finally, to take the absolute piss this has become as late as 10pm, which is not what I call "next day" and at that point I don't really want it delivered at all.

Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon

#66

Post by ThatPlayer »

prepend wrote: post #62
lisasays wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> unreasonably exert power to lessen competition. The unreasonable part is where the monopoly power comes in. Companies lessening competition happens all the time, it’s the monopoly aspect that triggers antitrust.

Monopoly power does not require a literal monopoly. Straight from the FTC: https://www.ftc.gov/advice-guidance/competition-guidance/gui...

> Courts do not require a literal monopoly before applying rules for single firm conduct; that term is used as shorthand for a firm with significant and durable market power

I'd say Amazon has "significant and durable market power"

Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon

#67

Post by barbazoo »

hyperbovine wrote: post #56
totallywrong wrote: post #54

How 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...

Probably hard with a behemoth like Amazon having so much influence on the market.

Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon

#68

Post by api »

prepend wrote: post #59
capital_guy wrote: post #23

I 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…

Amazon has a near-monopoly at this point on online retail in the USA, mostly owing to their logistics network and ability to deliver so easily combined with the one stop shop advantage.

Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon

#69

Post by 0xParlay »

lisasays wrote: post #60
prepend wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Can they save me from Comcast first? I’d be curious how that backlog refinement meeting goes.

> See that filter that orders priority by realized value? Remove it and order by campaign contributions

Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon

#70

Post by benced »

api wrote: post #68
prepend wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Amazon has a near-monopoly at this point on online retail in the USA, mostly owing to their logistics network and ability to deliver so easily combined with the one stop shop advantage.

“Amazon had 38% of online retail market share”
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