In what appears to be another chapter in the ongoing legal battle between the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Amazon, the FTC is gearing up to file an antitrust lawsuit against the e-commerce giant as early as next week, as reported by Bloomberg. In a bid to garner support, the FTC has sent a draft complaint to attorneys general across the nation, aiming to build a broad coalition of states for its case.
The Veil of Secrecy Surrounding the Case
While the precise details of this long-anticipated legal challenge remain shrouded in secrecy, it is widely speculated that the FTC’s focus will encompass Amazon Prime, allegations of Amazon’s exertion of influence on third-party sellers to utilize its logistics and advertising services, and suspicions that Amazon imposes restrictions preventing products from being sold at lower prices on competing platforms. Notably, the state of California has already initiated legal action against Amazon regarding this alleged pricing practice.
The FTC’s scrutiny of Amazon has persisted over several years. If the agency proceeds with the lawsuit next week, it will mark the fourth legal action taken against the tech behemoth this year alone. In May, the FTC filed a suit against Amazon regarding children’s privacy concerns linked to Alexa and allegations of unauthorized monitoring of Ring users. Amazon swiftly settled these charges, agreeing to pay a total of $30.8 million.
The following month, the FTC unleashed another complaint, this time alleging that Amazon employed coercive tactics to persuade individuals to subscribe to Amazon Prime, making it challenging for them to cancel their subscriptions. This case is currently ongoing. In a recent development, the FTC expanded its lawsuit by adding three Amazon executives as defendants. The agency asserts that these individuals ignored pleas from Amazon employees to cease the use of deceptive tactics aimed at enrolling individuals in recurring Prime subscriptions.
