Amazon set to meet with US FTC ahead of potential antitrust lawsuit

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Amazon.com is set to meet next week with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ahead of a potential long-awaited antitrust lawsuit against the retailer, according to a source familiar with the matter. The FTC began probing Amazon during former President Donald Trump's administration when the government decided to investigate Amazon, Google, Faceboook and Apple for allegedly breaking antitrust law.

The company has been criticized for allegedly favoring its own products and disfavoring outside sellers on its platform, among other allegations. Amazon has denied wrongdoing. Amazon is expected to argue at the meetings with the commissioners that the FTC should not file an antitrust suit against the company, a separate source said.

The FTC typically holds meetings with companies after lengthy investigations before deciding whether to file a suit. The FTC declined comment on the planned meeting. Before becoming FTC chair, Lina Khan in 2017 wrote a Yale Law Journal article tiled «Amazon's Antitrust Paradox,» that argued that the traditional antitrust focus on price was inadequate to identify antitrust harms done by Amazon.

Amazon has faced a range of allegations from a long list of critics, including using third-party data to decide which products to sell, preferencing its goods to the detriment of independent sellers on the Amazon platform and requiring Prime sellers to use Amazon's logistics and delivery services. Other critics have said Amazon abused its gatekeeper power by refusing to allow big rivals to advertise against its products on the Amazon platform and used below-cost prices on goods and services to keep customers, including on Prime. The company, with about 1.5 million employees globally, has also been accused of