The e-commerce giant is accused of forcing sellers to use its warehouses and delivery services, inflating costs for consumers and sellers.
The FTC accused Amazon, a company started in a garage in 1994 and today worth US$1.3 trillion, of fighting efforts by sellers on its online marketplace to offer products more cheaply on other platforms. Amazon forces sellers to use its warehouses and delivery services, inflating costs for consumers and sellers, the FTC said.
Amazon is a monopoly and misuses its powers, according to the FTC, which quotes a seller as saying: âWe have nowhere else to go and Amazon knows it.â
The lawsuit had been expected after years of complaints that Amazon.com and other tech giants abused their dominance of search, social media and online retailing to become gatekeepers on the most profitable aspects of the internet.
The need to take action against Big Tech has been one of the few ideas that Democrats and Republicans have agreed on, and the FTC chief has been particularly concerned about Amazonâs power.
The lawsuit, which was joined by 17 state attorneys general, follows a four-year investigation and federal lawsuits filed against Alphabetâs Google and Meta Platformsâ Facebook.
The FTC said that it was asking the court to issue a permanent injunction ordering Amazon to stop its unlawful conduct. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Seattle, where Amazon is based.
âLeft unchecked, Amazon will continue its illegal course of conduct to maintain its monopoly power,â the FTC said in its complaint which asked the court âto put an end to Amazonâs illegal course of conduct, pry loose Amazonâs monopolistic control, deny Amazon the fruits of its unlawful practices, and restore the lost promise of competitionâ.
