- James Clayton & Tom Espiner
- bbc news
image source, Getty Images
US regulators have sued Amazon, accusing the internet giant of illegally maintaining monopoly power.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said Amazon uses “a series of interlocking anticompetitive and unfair strategies” to inflate prices and stifle competition.
Amazon said the lawsuit is “false on the facts and the law, and we look forward to litigating this matter in court.”
The company is the latest technology giant to be sued by U.S. regulators.
FTC boss Lina Khan has been monitoring Amazon for years.
In 2017, Khan, then just 29 years old, published a major academic paper arguing that online retailers had escaped anticompetitive scrutiny.
“Amazon has driven toward monopoly with evangelistic zeal for consumers,” she said at the time.
The incident has been widely anticipated since her surprise appointment as FTC chair in 2021 and is seen as a significant test of her leadership.
The dominance of a few powerful tech companies has led some U.S. politicians to call for action to foster more competition in online search, retail and social media.
But Mr. Khan's FTC has achieved little with its strong rhetoric against big tech companies.
In February, it lost an attempt to block Meta's acquisition of VR company Within.
And in July, it lost an attempt to block Microsoft from completing a deal to acquire the “Call of Duty'' maker.
Mr. Khan has been under pressure to make at least one high-profile accusation, and the FTC has high hopes for the case.
The agency, along with 17 state attorneys, has argued that Amazon is a “monopolist” that prevents rivals and sellers from lowering prices.
Regulators also said the internet giant's actions “lower quality for shoppers, overcharge sellers, stifle innovation, and prevent competitors from competing fairly with Amazon.” he claimed.
But Amazon says that if it wins the “misguided” FTC lawsuit, it will have fewer products to choose from, higher prices and slower deliveries to consumers.
A key part of the case involves consumers losing money, or receiving a worse deal, because of the alleged monopoly.
Anti-competition laws in the United States are complex, but prosecutors generally must prove that a company has engaged in conduct that causes economic harm to consumers.
That's not always easy to prove, since many of Big Tech's services are free, such as Google's search engine or Meta's Instagram.
