the American Competition Authority and 17 states sue Amazon for “illegal” monopoly

They accuse him of “anti-competitive and unfair strategies to illegally maintain its monopoly” on online commerce. The American competition authority, the FTC, as well as 17 American states filed a complaint against Amazon on Tuesday, September 26, according to a press release from the federal agency.

The FTC, responsible for consumer protection, already has several investigations and complaints underway against Amazon on various topics, from data privacy to its business practices. “It’s not the size of Amazon that’s to blame”specifies the institution, but the “illegal methods which aim to exclude competitors, prevent them from developing and prevent alternatives from emerging”. According to the FTC, Amazon notably discourages sellers from offering prices lower than its own on products where the group competes with retailers.

The authority also criticizes the American giant for conditioning the eligibility of merchants for “Prime” (a subscription which allows consumers to have them delivered quickly) to the use of logistics services. “expensive” from Amazon. “Amazon is exploiting its monopoly power to enrich itself, while driving up prices and degrading service for the tens of millions of American families who shop on its platform, and the hundreds of thousands of ‘companies that depend on Amazon’ to market their products, asserts FTC President Lina Khan.

Amazon defends itself

“Today’s complaint clearly shows that the FTC has radically strayed from its mission to protect consumers and competition.”, reacted David Zapolsky, a vice president of Amazon, in a statement to the press. He assures that the practices criticized by the authority have on the contrary “helped drive competition and innovation across the retail industry, and delivered greater choice, lower prices and faster delivery times to Amazon customers, as well as greater opportunities for the many businesses that sell in Amazon’s store”.