FTC Chairman Lina Khan on Amazon and Other Competing Monopolite Business Practices: The Case of Amazon and the Ring Doorbell Service

“Amazon is a monopolist and it is exploiting its monopolies in ways that leave shoppers and sellers paying more for worse service,” FTC Chair Lina Khan told reporters on Tuesday.

The FTC has been looking into other areas of Amazon’s business as well, including Amazon’s Ring doorbell service. Earlier this year, Amazon agreed to pay $5.8 million to settle an FTC lawsuit that accused Ring workers and hackers of illegally spying on customers. The FTC claimed that the recordings of children’s voices were stored in violation of federal laws.

Amazon has tried, without success, to have Khan recused from FTC cases about the company. A review found no federal ethics grounds to prevent Khan from participating in cases related to Amazon.

The FTC struck out of its attempt to block Microsoft’s purchase of a videogame company after it lost a lawsuit against Facebook over its acquisition of virtual reality company Within Unlimited.

As FTC chair, Khan was unafraid to fight companies in court and was undeterred by the prospect of some losses.

Later, as Democratic counsel for the House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel in 2020, Khan helped write a 449-page report that called for “structural separations” of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. The kind of monopolies we last saw in the era of oil barons and railroads have become the kinds of monopolies they are today.

Amazon has built up a network of warehouses, air centers and trucking operations that allow them to deliver more packages than FedEx. It has also ventured into healthcare, home security, filmmaking and other fields — becoming one of the world’s most valuable corporations, worth $1.3 trillion.

According to private and government research, Amazon captures over 40% of all online shopping in the U.S., making it the most popular store. Consumer Intelligence Research Partners estimated that nearly two-thirds of Americans are members of Amazon’s Prime service.

The Case for Injunction in the $Psi$-Corona Investigation of a Pseudoscalar Explosion

The company did not need to be broken up immediately. Instead, it asked the court for a permanent injunction, although this could change down the road. The case is expected to play out over several years.