The Landscape of Opinions on Amazon’s Antitrust Lawsuit

Third-Party Perspectives

What’s New?

Because of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) decision to open a public investigation on the e-commerce enterprise there has been an influx in reporting and editorial opinions on the situation. And with such a large company in hot water it is no surprise that other organizations are inputting their opinions, fact checking, and finding dirt on the issue.

CNN’s report

We can see this when the popular news channel CNN chimes in, bringing up how this is not new. They proceed with a strong stance on the situation by stating, “that the fact Amazon sells its own products alongside third-party sellers creates an anticompetitive conflict of interest; that Amazon has used predatory pricing to weaken rivals and to ultimately acquire them” (Fung). They essentially claim that no wonder they have this lawsuit, they have been practicing predatory pricing to make themselves look more appealing.

CNN also adds that the issue is more difficult to pinpoint than to just say Amazon did this and Amazon did that. The FTC must show where Amazon is exerting dominance in specific “well-defined geographic and economic market(s)” (Fung). CNN suggests Amazon strategically selects markets to ensure industry dominance, a challenge the FTC must substantiate. They also reference Zapolsky’s claim of his opposition engineering markets to make it look that way.

Basically, CNN analyzes and breaks down the court case and the details that could make either side have a better argument. The article maintains a neutral tone. However, in my view, CNN appears to support the FTC while acknowledging the challenging battle against Amazon.

CBS Digging up the Dirt

Additionally, CBS News interposed with more information being revealed. With the case still ramping up, CBS reported there apparently have been communications that were deleted while the FTC’s investigation is still in progress. From CBS they restated the FTC’s claim that “Amazon ‘destroyed more than two years’ worth of communications from June 2019 to ‘at least early 2022’ despite instructions it gave Amazon not to do so” (CBS News). Amazon disputed the relevance of these “communications,” which took place on the Signal app, which can delete messages. In which Amazon claimed they were unrelated to the ongoing situation.

Professional Opinion

Another opinion I found derives from Joe Lancaster’s blog on reason.com who in turn references Ryan Young, a senior economist for the Competitive Enterprise Institute. To paraphrase, he essentially brings up quantitative data to prove that Amazon does not “dominate” any field of commerce. With only taking up 38% of online retail, and only 10% of total retail. Young criticizes the FTC by stating if they believe Amazon looks dominant, then they must have changed the terms that describe such behavior. He continues with arguing the FTC would have a very difficult time finding evidence of harm to consumers.

It was hard to find someone with very structured stance on the issue, many news channels chose to just report what was happening within the case. But Young proceeds his interpretation with, essentially just because Amazon is “big” does not mean they are “bad”. Young contends that Amazon’s innovative and cost-effective practices, do not result in consumer harm. Resulting in a significant hurdle for the FTC to get over if they wish to be victorious.

To Summarize…

In summary, despite indications of antitrust practices in Amazon’s operations, multiple factors influence the investigation’s eventual outcome. Regardless of Amazon’s ability to stand against the FTC, it may be challenging by nature for the agency to suceed. But leveraging other suspicious activities by the e-commerce giant could help support their argument. Even so, the extensive investigation demands substantial proof for FTC success. In which, as the session progresses, there may be more information that surfaces and is posited by sources that will ultimately impact the proceeding.

References

Fong, B. (2023, September 28). Amazon’s FTC lawsuit: What you need to know. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/28/tech/amazon-ftc-lawsuit-takeaways/index.html

FTC says Amazon used algorithm to secretly raise prices, destroyed internal messages. (2023, November 2). CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/ftc-says-amazon-used-algorithm-secretly-raise-prices-destroyed-internal-messages/

Lancaster, J. (2023, Sep 26). FTC Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against Amazon: Among the allegations, the agency charges that Amazon Prime subscribers are incentivized to make the most of their subscription by buying more products. Retrieved November 7, 2023, from