Not only is it plausible it's completely common. It's just a textbook description of how trusts work. The upstart can't lock in contracts when another well-fun

Not only is it plausible it's completely common. It's just a textbook description of how trusts work. The upstart can't lock in contracts when another well-funded monopoly company is engaging in predatory activities. The monopoly has market power which it can use to put competitors out of business and extort profits from suppliers. It's really just econ 101 and a pretty settled concept. Now there is certainly an argument to be made about the degree to which Amazon is actually doing this, but from a theoretical standpoint none of this is confusing at all, and there are numerous real world examples of this in action.