The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the attorneys general of 17 US states have filed a lawsuit against Amazon for monopolythe FTC reported this Tuesday in a statement.
In their complaint, they accuse the internet commerce giant of “illegally” maintain monopolistic power through multiple anti-competitive practices.
“Amazon is [un agente] monopolistic and exploits its monopolies so that buyers and sellers pay more for poorer quality service“said FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan.
In the lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Seattle, the FTC and 17 other state prosecutors have accused Amazon of resorting to tactics that harm competition and that prevent “its current rivals from growing and new ones from taking root.”
Likewise, the company has been sued for forcing the bidders present on the platform to make use of its logistics and delivery services to achieve a better positioning of your products on the web. On the other hand, companies that offer their products at lower prices on other portals are “punished.”
The complaint accuses Amazon of imposing prohibitive rates to the “tens of thousands of companies that They have no choice but to turn to Amazon to stay open“. In this sense, taking into account the different types of taxes, the firms that use the platform have to “pay close to 50% of their total income” to Jeff Bezos’ company.
“Thousands of companies have no choice but to turn to Amazon to remain open,” the complaint states.
“Amazon’s continued pattern of illegal conduct blocks competition, allowing it to exercise monopoly power to inflate prices, degrade quality and undermine innovation for consumers and businesses,” the regulatory body’s statement summarized.
Last July, the European Comission opened an “in-depth” investigation against Amazon after its acquisition of iRobot, the company behind the Roomba vacuum cleaners, due to the advantages that the transaction could give to the former when it comes to “restricting” competition in the market for autonomous vacuum cleaners. time that “strengthens its position as a market supplier”.
According to the agency’s preliminary findings, the acquisition “could” allow Amazon to limit competition by preventing or hindering the marketing of rival vacuum cleaners on its website, or by restricting their compatibility with other home devices, such as Alexa.
