US Antitrust Case Against Amazon To Move Forward (reuters.com) 3
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: The U.S. Federal Trade Commission's case accusing Amazon of stifling competition in online retail will move forward, though some of the states that sued alongside the agency had their claims dismissed, court documents showed. U.S. District Judge John Chun in Seattle unsealed his ruling from Sept. 30, which dismissed some of the claims brought by attorneys general in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Oklahoma. Last year, the FTC alleged Amazon.com, which has 1 billion items in its online superstore, was using an algorithm that pushed up prices U.S. households paid by more than $1 billion. Amazon has said in court papers it stopped using the program in 2019.
The FTC has accused the online retailer of using anti-competitive tactics to maintain dominance among online superstores and marketplaces. Amazon asked Chun to dismiss the case in December, saying the FTC had raised no evidence of harm to consumers. The judge said in his ruling that he cannot consider Amazon's claims that its actions benefited competition at this early stage in the case.
The FTC has accused the online retailer of using anti-competitive tactics to maintain dominance among online superstores and marketplaces. Amazon asked Chun to dismiss the case in December, saying the FTC had raised no evidence of harm to consumers. The judge said in his ruling that he cannot consider Amazon's claims that its actions benefited competition at this early stage in the case.
Yeah, and so what as in what are you gonna do... (Score:2)
...about it? Yeah, I know it's silly to ask about solutions on the gripers' paradise known as Slashdot, but this one actually interests me from the theoretical perspective. For example, it's a relatively simple theory to say that Microsoft could be cut into competing daughter companies, each starting with a copy of the source code and an equal share of the resources. That solution would create a competitive market around a de facto standard. If you consider how to REALLY break up the google, then you could
Re: (Score:2)
Watch this, they are going to settle with a watered-down "consent decree" that lets Amazon keep doing 2/3 of its slimy practices, just like what Microsoft got. Big Biz Bribes Bigly to own Bongress, I mean Congress. And the courts.
Shenanigans and bias... (Score:1)
This smells pretty fishy. It's fallen off lately since Bezos has been stepping away, but historically Amazon has been throughly devoted to doing right by their customers. Vendors, contractors, governments, partners, and competitors can all be damned and would be shown no mercy; but they were definitely going to make bloody well sure the *customer* was satisfied at the end of the day. So, since anti-trust action generally requires showing harm to the consumer in order to be legitimate, I'm skeptical in ge