A long-awaited antitrust case against Amazon’s retail business is expected to be filed in federal court as soon as tomorrow, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. Via Politico:
The Federal Trade Commission has been preparing a complaint since at least the start of this year targeting an array of Amazon’s business practices. The exact details of the lawsuit are not known, and changes to the final complaint are possible until it’s officially submitted. But personnel throughout the agency, including FTC Chair Lina Khan herself, have homed in on several of Amazon’s business practices, POLITICO has previously reported.
That includes challenges to Amazon Prime, Amazon rules that the FTC says block lower prices on competing websites and actions regulators believe force merchants to use Amazon’s logistics and advertising services.
The lawsuit would be one of the most aggressive and high-profile moves in the Biden administration’s rocky effort to tame the power of tech giants. If successful, it could lead to a court-ordered restructuring of the $1.35 trillion empire and define the legacy of Khan, who rose to prominence after authoring an article as a law student outlining the antitrust case against Amazon.
