After years of investigations and tensions between political powers and Amazon, the American competition authority (FTC or Federal Trade Commission) and 17 states filed a complaint on Tuesday against the technology giant, accusing it of “ illegally maintain its monopoly » thanks to “ anti-competitive and unfair strategies “.
2 mins
With our correspondent in Washington, Guillaume Naudin
Amazon uses its weight in the e-commerce market to prevent companies from offering lower prices and to force them to pay it higher commissions. This is in essence the accusation brought before a federal court in Seattle, where the headquarters of the behemoth is located. According to the commission, Jeff Bezos’ group virtually eliminates from its platform sellers who dare to offer lower prices elsewhere than those charged on its site. In addition, the giant would take advantage of its weight to force sellers to subscribe to its logistics services, which are theoretically optional but in practice almost essential.
As a result, instead of a theoretical 15% commission, sellers would have to give half of their earnings to Amazon. And consumers pay more for offers with little variety. One of Amazon’s lawyers explains that if a trial were to take place and if the commission ended up getting what it demanded, it would be even worse. For him, society actually promotes innovation and competition.
“ Amazon is exploiting its monopoly power to enrich itself, while driving up prices and degrading service for the tens of millions of American families who shop on its platform and the hundreds of thousands of businesses who depend on Amazon “, to market their products, asserts the president of the FTC, Lina Khan, quoted in the press release.
For the president of the federal authority, it is almost a personal crusade. She has been denouncing Amazon’s practices since she was a law student. She managed to convince Joe Biden who appointed her to this position. This has not prevented it from losing in recent months in actions brought against other giants like Meta or Microsoft.