Amazon To Fall Under Antitrust Oversight From The FTC

The FTC and the DOJ have struck a deal to put Amazon under the jurisdiction of the FTC. I’ve seen this movie before. The government has its antitrust knickers in a knot.

Here’s the thing. In the physical world, there is Coke and Pepsi, McDonald’s and Burger King, etc. In the online world, there is only one Amazon, one Google, one Facebook... in fact, after you get to a certain scale, there is only one of anything online. It is the nature of the beast. Some oversight may be in order, but antitrust cases are rarely subtle.

As always, your thoughts and comments are both welcome and strongly encouraged.

Amazon will reportedly fall under antitrust oversight from the FTC

By Andrew Liptak Jun 2, 2019, 11:41am EDT

Amazon will reportedly fall under the jurisdiction of the Federal Trade Commission following an agreement between the FTC and the Department of Justice, reports The Washington Post. The move could bring increased scrutiny for the retail giant, just after the DOJ is reportedly preparing its own case against Google.

The Post says that it’s not immediately clear what plans the FTC has for Amazon, but notes that this “kind of arrangement brokered between the Justice Department and the FTC typically presages more serious antitrust scrutiny.” While the Post didn’t get comments from Amazon, the DOJ or FTC regarding the news, it spoke with former FTC chair Maureen Ohlhausen, who said that if such discussions are underway, “that would indicate there’s a reason for that discussion, whether it’s a new interest, study, or investigation.”

Read more at The Verge.