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FTC readies lawsuit that could break up Amazon (www.politico.com)

submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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A case would be a high-water mark for FTC Chair Lina Khan who gained prominence criticizing the company’s dominance.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago

The complaint is likely to focus on challenges to Amazon Prime, Amazon rules that the FTC says block lower prices on competing websites, and policies the FTC believes force merchants to use Amazon’s logistics and advertising services, according to some of the people.

Amazon Prime, which began as a subscription for unlimited free shipping, is also expected to be a target, some of the people said. Prime has evolved to include books, music and video streaming. The FTC is concerned that the bundle of services is used to illegally cement the company’s market power.

The FTC is also expected to claim that Amazon steers sellers to its own logistics services, which include shipping and warehousing, by rewarding them with better placement on the site, and punishing them when they don’t

Amazon’s rapidly growing digital advertising business will also likely be targeted, some of the people said. The agency is concerned Amazon forces merchants to buy ads in order to get better placement in customer search results.

Sounds like there's only some very minor restructuring even on the table here. The worst case scenario for Amazon is going to be getting forced to unbundle certain bundled services. I'd definitely like to see that, but I also don't imagine it would seriously threaten Amazon's hegemony, unless they're forced to pay major fines in proportion to the filthy lucre the service bundling has caused. It does not sound like anyone is telling Amazon they need to spin off parts of their business. Just unbundle some products.