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If Amazon isn't a monopoly (or at least close) then why is Amazon facing action or under investigation for antitrust from Congress, the European Union, the DOJ

If Amazon isn't a monopoly (or at least close) then why is Amazon facing action or under investigation for antitrust from Congress, the European Union, the DOJ and 3 states?

wilsynet 6y ago
The European Commission is investigating Amazon based on "distorting competition in online retail markets" [1]. I don't see a claim by the commission that Amazon is a monopoly. You can be investigated and have antitrust related actions applied to you without actually being a monopoly [2]. Further, the investigation is related to Amazon's retail marketplace business, not Amazon as a provider of cloud infrastructure. What is congress investigating Amazon for? I think you need to be more specific. 1. https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_2077 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_... 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_antitrust_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_antitrust_law "In the United States, antitrust law is a collection of federal and state government laws that regulate the conduct and organization of business corporations and are generally intended to promote competition for the benefit of consumers."
minhazm 6y ago
In what way could AWS possibly be a monopoly? They definitely don't have a monopoly on retail sales. They don't have a monopoly on cloud either. Now are they competitive? Maybe, but that's not the same thing as being a monopoly.
three_seagrass 6y ago
1) Antitrust accusations include participating in anti-competitive behavior, which may or may not be with a company who has as a monopoly. 2) Antitrust accusations are relatively low cost to make and sometimes used as cheap political tools to score points with a base, despite not having a chance to go anywhere.
ehsankia 6y ago
All the investigation as far as I know is on the web store side of their business, with Amazon Basics specifically. The blog above is talking about AWS, which is a different side of their business.

If Amazon isn't a monopoly (or at least close) then why is Amazon facing action or under investigation for antitrust from Congress, the European Union, the DOJ and 3 states?

wilsynet 6y ago

The European Commission is investigating Amazon based on "distorting competition in online retail markets" [1]. I don't see a claim by the commission that Amazon is a monopoly. You can be investigated and have antitrust related actions applied to you without actually being a monopoly [2]. Further, the investigation is related to Amazon's retail marketplace business, not Amazon as a provider of cloud infrastructure. What is congress investigating Amazon for? I think you need to be more specific. 1. https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_2077 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_... 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_antitrust_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_antitrust_law "In the United States, antitrust law is a collection of federal and state government laws that regulate the conduct and organization of business corporations and are generally intended to promote competition for the benefit of consumers."

minhazm 6y ago

In what way could AWS possibly be a monopoly? They definitely don't have a monopoly on retail sales. They don't have a monopoly on cloud either. Now are they competitive? Maybe, but that's not the same thing as being a monopoly.

three_seagrass 6y ago

1) Antitrust accusations include participating in anti-competitive behavior, which may or may not be with a company who has as a monopoly. 2) Antitrust accusations are relatively low cost to make and sometimes used as cheap political tools to score points with a base, despite not having a chance to go anywhere.

ehsankia 6y ago

All the investigation as far as I know is on the web store side of their business, with Amazon Basics specifically. The blog above is talking about AWS, which is a different side of their business.