The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) is reporting that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is readying a potential antitrust lawsuit against tech giant Amazon Inc. on the grounds that many of its business practices are "anticompetitive."
The WSJ reports "people familiar with the matter" said the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been examining Amazon’s business practices in recent years and whether or not the company treats outside sellers differently. The commission has also reviewed the company’s Amazon Prime subscription bundling. No further information on the specifics of what the FTC would be targeting could be learned.
Investigations into Amazon began during the Trump administration, the WSJ reported. In 2019, the FTC and the Justice Department (DOJ) brokered a jurisdictional agreement for federal antitrust investigations of big technology companies. The DOJ handled investigations into Google and Apple Inc. while the FTC took Amazon and Facebook.
With the 2021 appointment of Chair Lina Khan, the FTC has made it a primary goal to enforce antitrust laws in order to ensure maximum efficacy and cultivate a competitive business environment. After Khan’s confirmation, Amazon argued that she should be recused from investigations related to the company because of her past criticisms, according to the WSJ. Although the FTC has not publicly responded to Amazon’s petitions, the commission rejected similar recusal petitions from Facebook.
Khan’s resume and past published work provides some possible insight into what the FTC’s next action could be. According to the FTC’s website, Khan was an Associate Professor of Law at Columbia Law School and served as counsel to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law, legal adviser to FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra, and Legal Director at the Open Markets Institute.
“Vigorous antitrust enforcement is critical to the growth and dynamism of our economy, as well as to our shared prosperity and liberty,” Khan said on Sept. 20, 2022, during a testimony before the Senate Judiciary’s Subcommittee on antitrust and consumer rights.
“Restoring antitrust to an approach that is faithful to the legal authorities that Congress gave the FTC is critical for promoting the rule of law & ensuring the democratic legitimacy of our work” Khan wrote in a Sept. 19 Twitter post sharing a transcript of her remarks at the Fordham Annual Conference on International Antitrust Law & Policy.
The WSJ previously reported that Khan has been a vocal leader in the antitrust movement, criticizing powerful technology companies and a decades-long, laissez faire approach to large mergers and acquisitions, and tracking monopolies.
