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FTC files “the big one,” a lawsuit alleging Amazon illegally maintains monopoly (arstechnica.com)

submitted 1 year ago by L4s to c/technology

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FTC files “the big one,” a lawsuit alleging Amazon illegally maintains monopoly::FTC: Amazon "extracts enormous monopoly rents from everyone within its reach."

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[–] [email protected] 183 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I can't help but notice Amazon is facing a big lawsuit over hurting other corporations.

Selling an infinite catalogue of shoddy, fraudulent, and outright dangerous goods like leaden toys, phone-melting power-equipment, house-destroying incendiary batteries, and data-erasing empty data storage? No, that's fine, that's not Amazon's fault, that was XZBBK's fault. We kicked them off the store. No, I don't think they're related to that new company XBZZK, why would you say that? They sell legitimate USB cables that according to the listing used to be cutting board, a drying rack, a canopy for a kids bed, and an espresso machine.

[–] chiliedogg 38 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's worse than that.

They DON'T kick bad actors off the store most of the time because they don't know who they are.

Amazon keeps all of product X in one place in each distribution center, regardless of the supplier. So they can't know which of the 35 sellers of the product is supplying the counterfeits.

I don't buy batteries from them anymore. I'm pretty sure 90+% of 18650 cells they have are counterfeit.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

At some point it became a question of who doesn't sell counterfeit 18650s

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

The gall to question their listing with an average customer rating of 4.9/5 stars. Sure I only gave them that rating so I could qualify for the warranty on the 3 TB flash drive I bought from them for $8.99, but I'm sure it'll work fine once I use it for the first time.

[–] uis 5 points 1 year ago

Amazon isn't sued for not kicking bad actors, it is sued for being bad actor

[–] WilliamTheWicked 125 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

....can we just skip to the part where Amazon pays less than a fractional percent of their profit in fines and then proceeds with business as usual? I just feel like the charade has grown tiresome at this point.

[–] Clent 109 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You sound jaded.

Don't let the billionaires wear down the will to fight.

[–] WilliamTheWicked 31 points 1 year ago

Thanks. I appreciate that.

[–] [email protected] 78 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You must’ve missed the part where Lina Khan built her entire career and reputation on an article she wrote for the Yale Law Journal as a law student arguing that Amazon should be split into separate companies and prevented from re-integrating.

She is considered a radical within the antitrust law world. She is vigorously opposed to vertically integrated monopolies of which Amazon is a star example. This case against Amazon is basically the final boss of her career and her legal movement, the New Brandeis Movement.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 year ago

And then when this gets big it will be decided on by partison 90 year old idiots who will probably and up saying "amazon is 100% in the right on all counts, as damages to their reputation, amazon now owns the FTC" and then it is promptly found out that amazon paid them $10 million each with a comically large check in front of the courthouse at a press conference while taking photos and laughing "about those darned poor people" and the ruling will still stand.

[–] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Ah well, better not try then. Guess we just have to learn to like the taste of corporate boot.

Maybe some more wanking about some glorious revolution that will never happen will make that boot taste better.

[–] Mog_fanatic 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I feel the exact same way with celebrities or the uber wealthy and criminal trials. Just skip to the part where they pay .000000001% of their net worth n fines or bail or whatever and get off scot free.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So let's not try? That's what they want you to think and feel.

[–] Mog_fanatic 3 points 1 year ago

I'm not saying don't try. I'm just saying stop telling everyone "This is it! This is gonna be the one!" And then absolutely nothing happens.

Don't tell me what is gonna happen. You can go ahead and let me know if anything does actually happen. I'm just so sick of hearing the same old "we got em now" story and then absolutely nothing happens

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Allow it to take its course.

"The lawsuit seeks declarations that Amazon's conduct violates federal and state laws. It asks for an injunction prohibiting the conduct described in the lawsuit along with unspecified "structural relief" that would be "necessary to redress and prevent recurrence of Amazon's violations of the law." Structural relief could involve breaking up the company."

[–] WilliamTheWicked 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Were you around in 1989 when Exxon basically destroyed Prince William Sound with an iceberged oil tanker through a comically evil set of circumstances including a possibly drunken captain, faulty equipment which languished for months, promised equipment that was never installed, and a total lack of planning for contingency? They dumped like 11 million gallons of oil and were assigned massive punitive damages of 5 billion bucks?

....and then it got appealed all the way to the supreme court, where it got busted down to 500 million spread over a time which actually allowed them to see profitability for causing one of the largest ecological disasters in history.

I don't mean to sound jaded, and I truly appreciate your optimism. But the deck is no less stacked thirty years later and our political system is still bought and paid for. Let's roll the dice and hope you come out on top of this one, friend. I'll cheer alongside you.

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[–] [email protected] 97 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Amazon and Walmart are in great need of some good ol' trust busting. Well, they aren't in need of it, this society is in need of it.

[–] nucleative 40 points 1 year ago

Amazon and Walmart have just outright won the game. Everyone else in those spaces, and adjacent spaces, just can't compete anymore. You either do business with them or die/live on the leftover scraps.

It's really not good, there should be more opportunities for others.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oooh. Someone's getting a 0.001% fine to continue business as usual. Juicy.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Everyone is so clever and so jaded. Please read the article:

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yeah, and history shows that "structural relief" is going to be a small fine.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The Dem appointees are trying to change things for the better. They may not be successful but I'm willing to wait and see, rather than cynically write off all chances today. It's a mindset difference. Apathy and cynicism aren't places I personally enjoy living.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Thanks for reading the article for me, hah. I will say I'm looking for aws in particular to be split up.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago

I just want a trust buster

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (5 children)

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The Federal Trade Commission and 17 state attorneys general today sued Amazon, claiming the online retail giant illegally maintains monopoly power.

"Our complaint lays out how Amazon has used a set of punitive and coercive tactics to unlawfully maintain its monopolies," FTC Chair Lina Khan said.

Today's lawsuit seeks to hold Amazon to account for these monopolistic practices and restore the lost promise of free and fair competition."

Joining the FTC in the lawsuit are Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin.

The FTC claimed that "Amazon's illegal, exclusionary conduct makes it impossible for competitors to gain a foothold," and that the company "extracts enormous monopoly rents from everyone within its reach."

If the FTC gets its way, the result would be fewer products to choose from, higher prices, slower deliveries for consumers, and reduced options for small businesses—the opposite of what antitrust law is designed to do," Amazon Global Public Policy & General Counsel David Zapolsky wrote.

The original article contains 613 words, the summary contains 174 words. Saved 72%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

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[–] RememberTheApollo_ 23 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Pff…. Now do the banks, cable companies, health care, etc.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If they did the banks, you'd say Pff, now do Amazon. Let's value what we have and hope to build on it, rather than dismiss it as not enough.

[–] elephantium 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

banks

Not a monopoly though?

cable companies

Agreed on this one! In theory, there are lots of cable companies.

In practice, you actually only have one cable provider that provides service in your area.

health care

Also not a monopoly in my area.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to defend any of the abusive practices of any of these industries. It's just that they're not monopolies.

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[–] protovack 19 points 1 year ago (3 children)

i hate amazon as much as anyone, but...really, just cancel prime and dont use them unless you absolutely have to. Order direct from companies themselves if you can. Shop local. You can't rely on the FTC to do anything and i doubt this will go anywhere. you are much more powerful than you think you are.

[–] BagelEmbezzler 23 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That feel when your Etsy purchase comes with an Amazon receipt in the package :(

[–] dirtySourdough 16 points 1 year ago

I had this happen to me on eBay as well. I paid a few extra bucks to avoid buying from Amazon and instead got the item mailed to me directly from Amazon. This is against eBay's policies (you need to have the described item on hand) and may be against Etsy's policies too

[–] crashoverride 5 points 1 year ago

That's if Etsy shit wasn't expensive as hell. It's not practical to ship at

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Will not go anywhere because Amazon and other gigacirporations basically own the US govt at this point.

[–] Smoogs 9 points 1 year ago

Well it’s a shame a company can’t keep benefitting the customers. Seems the capitalist business plan always has to go through a morph of fucking over everyone.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I hope they break it into a dozen pieces (or better yet, nationalize it) and cast Beef Jesus into the abyss.

[–] fubbernuckin 6 points 1 year ago

I'm all for Amazon getting sued but... the big one? Wasn't there another "big one" a week or two ago? And who called it that? Feels like the reporters just made that part up.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Lina is the best

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I want this to actually do something but I don't have any hope anything will happen. Sigh.

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