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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

#41

Post by Eji1700 »

HWR_14 wrote: post #33
Eji1700 wrote: post #4

Earlier 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.

Only just, and more because of their continued incompetence in that area with IE.

They were going to actually break the company apart into different divisions to stop the vertical monopoly, but instead that's just become standard.

Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon

#42

Post by 8note »

majormajor wrote: post #28
gjsman-1000 wrote: post #22

I'm actually not convinced this is going to go very well. The FTC for the last few years has talked a big game, and hired people who have talked a big game; but the actual lawsuits have been pretty mediocre and occasionally even poorly thought through. An example lately is their battle with Microsoft to block the ActiVision acquisition which, the general consensus of observers seems to be, isn't going very well and t…

The FTC shifted under Khan from a posture of "don't bring a case if it's not bulletproof" to one of "be willing to litigate even on things we might lose" to be less of a pushover. See discussion and quotes here: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/07/technology/meta-vr-antitr... I think this is probably wise even if they don't win much: 1) it'll set the boundaries of how courts interpret the current laws, which will info…

3) it'll show lawmakers where the laws are good and where they need changes

Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon

#44

Post by granzymes »

CPLX wrote: post #30
gjsman-1000 wrote: post #22

I'm actually not convinced this is going to go very well. The FTC for the last few years has talked a big game, and hired people who have talked a big game; but the actual lawsuits have been pretty mediocre and occasionally even poorly thought through. An example lately is their battle with Microsoft to block the ActiVision acquisition which, the general consensus of observers seems to be, isn't going very well and t…

Are you actually following the MS/Activision testimony? They've been getting absolutely crucified, there are multiple examples of blatantly illegal emails and discussions of anti-competitive behavior being introduced on the stand. The only real question right now is if the judge whose son quite literally works for Microsoft (!!) will decide that laws don't matter, which has been the main issue with antitrust enforcem…

Her son working for another Microsoft division isn't an issue and notably neither the FTC nor private plaintiffs whose case the judge previously dismissed even asked her to recuse.

Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon

#45

Post by gloryjulio »

hyuuu wrote: post #36
FormerBandmate wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China’s banning our tech companies and they’re regulating the shit out of their own. They do a lot of shit we shouldn’t but they’re dead on that tech companies should serve society instead of the other way around

eh, the US also bans Chinese tech companies too, i think the fear of data being used inappropriately is equally high on both parties. The US does have more international and larger corporations, so obviously in terms of number we have more banned.

Not really. There are some hardware bans, but are there any bans on the software companies?

Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon

#46

Post by jimnotgym »

A less well known area of concern with Amazon is the way it is now purchasing for its own business. It is actively cutting out local distributors in favour of direct deals with manufacturers. This is really squeezing those businesses.

Edit: this seems particularly monopolistic because it is using its own global logistics to undermine the supply chain to other retailers.

Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon

#47

Post by throwaway9274 »

jimnotgym wrote: post #46

A less well known area of concern with Amazon is the way it is now purchasing for its own business. It is actively cutting out local distributors in favour of direct deals with manufacturers. This is really squeezing those businesses. Edit: this seems particularly monopolistic because it is using its own global logistics to undermine the supply chain to other retailers.

…Why do we want local distributors? Open to changing my mind, but that sounds more like actual efficiency gain from vertical integration.

Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon

#48

Post by jimnotgym »

throwaway9274 wrote: post #47
jimnotgym wrote: post #46

A less well known area of concern with Amazon is the way it is now purchasing for its own business. It is actively cutting out local distributors in favour of direct deals with manufacturers. This is really squeezing those businesses. Edit: this seems particularly monopolistic because it is using its own global logistics to undermine the supply chain to other retailers.

…Why do we want local distributors? Open to changing my mind, but that sounds more like actual efficiency gain from vertical integration.

Because other retailers need the local distributors. If you knock them out of the market there is no local stockholder and you need to buy directly from the manufacturer (in a third country) yourself. A smaller company probably can't afford to buy in those kind of quantities.

Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon

#49

Post by hbosch »

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 it's so much about defending AMZN as it is recognizing what a weak case the FTC chose. It's going to amount to a mere slap on the wrist for Amazon, in reality. This suit does nothing to limit the velocity Amazon has in entertainment, retail, payments, cloud and so on.

Re: FTC reportedly plans major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon

#50

Post by treis »

dragonwriter wrote: post #17
treis wrote: post #2

This 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.

> There’s legitimate reasons to favor sellers that use your own logistics. Hard to see that as anti-competitive. Whether or not there are also “legitimate reasons”, its not hard at all to see favoritism on a platform with market dominance conditioned on use of another service as leveraging dominance in one market to gain control of another.

Hard for me to buy "selling on Amazon.com" and "fulfilling orders sold on Amazon.com" as separate markets.
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