Amazon to Hold Talks with FTC Ahead of Antitrust Lawsuit Possibility

According to reports, Amazon is set to have a meeting with the FTC next week ahead of a potential antitrust lawsuit against the e-commerce giant. The New York Times states that FTC chair Lina Khan and commissioners Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya will engage in discussions with Amazon representatives as the agency approaches a decision on whether to take legal action against the company for violating antimonopoly regulations. This scheduled meeting is seen as a crucial opportunity for Amazon to convince the FTC to reconsider before proceeding with a lawsuit.

In 2019, the FTC began investigating Amazon for using its influence to harm competition. The researchers began their investigation by interviewing third-party marketplace sellers, asking how their income on Amazon compared to that of competing platforms such as eBay and Walmart. Politico reported in July that the potential lawsuit “is likely to challenge a number of Amazon’s business practices” and “could lead to a court-ordered restructuring of the $1.3 trillion empire.” This lawsuit is separate from the FTC’s lawsuit against the retailer in June, which accuses it of cheating customers into Prime subscriptions and making it difficult to cancel the service.

Khan has been a long-time critic of Amazon. While a law student at Yale, he wrote a paper proposing a rethinking of competition law in response to corporate dominance. His report criticized US antitrust laws for focusing too much on consumer prices, but dismissed other ways companies can break the law to gain competitive advantages. “As consumers and users, we love these tech companies,” he told The New York Times in 2018. “But as citizens, workers, and entrepreneurs, we understand that their power is troubling. We need a new framework, a new vocabulary for how to evaluate and deal with their dominance.” Amazon has defended Khan’s recusal from the case, citing his academic work and past statements.

The Biden administration has reportedly “grown increasingly concerned” about the influence of Big Tech. Bloomberg describes the executive branch as “seeking to reverse what it has seen as decades of lax controls on corporate consolidation and market power.” The DOJ has sued Meta and Google multiple times (although a federal judge recently dropped one of those cases).