Washington, D.C. (9/27/2023) – Yesterday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a lawsuit designed to dismantle Amazon, one of America’s most trusted companies.
This is yet another attempt from the Federal Trade Commission to hamstring a successful U.S. company Americans know and love in the pursuit of its radical agenda. If successful in her efforts to sue Amazon, FTC Chair Lina Khan would limit access for American consumers, increase prices, hinder competition, and hurt small businesses.
Here’s what they are saying.
“The FTC’s ‘hard climb ahead:’”
“…Several legal experts told Reuters that the FTC faces a high bar in trying to show that U.S. consumers would be better off in a world without Amazon’s policies in place…
“…Antitrust lawyer David Balto, a former policy director at the FTC, described the FTC’s hard climb ahead as trying to surmount Washington state’s Mt. Rainier in tennis shoes…
“‘…You know, it’s conceivable — you could get to the top — but it’s 20,000 feet and it’s going to be really cold,’ he said…” (Reuters)
“Captain Ahab’s pursuit of Moby Dick:”
“…[F]TC Chair Lina Khan rose to prominence by calling for antitrust enforcement against Amazon when she was still a Yale University law student and has been a vocal critic of the company ever since. Unfortunately, the case is reminiscent of Captain Ahab’s doomed pursuit of Moby Dick — it is guided more by desire and ideology than a reasonable assessment of the costs and benefits…
“…The complaint focuses on how hard it is for rivals to reach Amazon’s scale or compete with its huge range of services. But Amazon has succeeded because consumers want those services, and Amazon can provide them better and cheaper than others.” (New York Post)
“Trouble convincing courts:”
“…The FTC’s lawsuit, filed in Seattle federal court, marks a milestone in the Biden administration’s aggressive approach to enforcing antitrust laws and has been anticipated for months. The agency’s chair, Lina Khan, is a longtime critic of Amazon who wrote in the Yale Law Journal in 2017 that earlier generations of competition cops and courts abandoned the law’s concerns over conglomerates such as Amazon…
“…Khan has had trouble convincing courts of her antitrust views, however. Having earlier lost cases against both Microsoft and Meta Platforms, she and her agency now face a crucial test in taking on Amazon…” (The Wall Street Journal)
“FTC faces uphill battle in taking on Amazon:”
“…The Federal Trade Commission faces an uphill battle suing Amazon over alleged anti-competitive business practices, industry sources tell Axios…
“…The regulatory agency has the onus of proving harm to the consumer, which its complaint ineffectively tries to do, the sources say…
“…An argument could be made that penalizing Amazon or, at the most extreme, breaking up Prime could actually harm the consumer, says Brian Albrecht, chief economist at the International Center for Law & Economics…” (Axios)
The Don’t Break What Works campaign is powered by the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA). Learn more here.