The Amazon-FTC Collision: An Investigation by the Lina Khan & the Seattle e-mailing office of Mr. Bezos

Mr. Bezos is not in charge of Amazon on a day-to-day basis. He surrendered the chief executive reins to Andy Jassy two years ago. No matter what, Mr. Bezos is Amazon’s executive chair and has more of the company than anyone else. It is his innovations, carried out over more than 20 years, that Ms. Khan is challenging. The complaint quotes him a number of times.

Two very different philosophies pushed by outsiders who are unafraid of taking risks have their much-awaited confrontation. The Federal Trade Commission was run by Ms. Khan and on Tuesday they filed a complaint against Amazon in federal court. The suit accused Amazon of being a monopolist that used unfair and illegal tactics to maintain its power. The suit was wrong according to Amazon.

Silicon Valley spent the summer transfixed by the prospect of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg literally fighting each other, despite the odds of this actually happening being near zero. The true story is that Ms. Khan and Mr. Bezos are at the center of a courtroom clash that will impact more than one million employees and hundreds of millions of customers.

Lina Khan rose to prominence in law school after she wrote a scholarly article in 2017 arguing for the breakup of Amazon – she compared the tech giant to the oil barons and railroad monopolies of more than a century ago. She’s now the chair of the Federal Trade Commission, which is essentially the government’s watchdog for corporations.

According to Khan, the suit isn’t asking for the splitting of Amazon but it is asking for improvements to the company. She said it was about bringing more competition and fair competition in order to benefit rivals and consumers.

“This complaint is focused on establishing liability,” Khan said. “Ultimately, any relief needs to stop the illegal tactics, prevent a reoccurrence and fully restore competition.”

The FTC and the states want the court to forbid Amazon from doing things, but it may be a while before they get a permanent injunction. The case was filed in Seattle, where Amazon is located and is expected to play out for several years.

“You can basically disappear from Amazon’s storefront if you put a lower price somewhere else,” Khan told NPR. “Given the significant shopper traffic on Amazon, if Amazon makes you disappear from the storefront, that can be quite fatal for your business.”

According to Amazon’s numbers, around 60% of items purchased on Amazon are sold by third-party sellers. Many sellers say Amazon is so dominant in online retail that it’s hard to sell anywhere else — so they stay there despite high fees.