Amazon 'faces' US FTC antitrust investigation over market practices

SAN FRANCISCO: The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is reportedly preparing an antitrust suit against Amazon over its allegedly monopolistic market practices.

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal citing sources, the FTC could challenge an array of the e-commerce giant's business practices as anticompetitive.

FTC Chair Lina Khan had argued in an influential academic paper that Amazon had "amassed too much market power" and that antitrust law had failed to restrain it.

She is the author of an influential 2017 Yale Law Review article titled "Amazon's Antitrust Paradox."

The FTC has also been scrutinising the company's Amazon Prime subscription service's bundling practices, according to the report.

Amazon and the FTC declined to comment.

The FTC began probing Amazon during the tenure of Republican Chairman Joseph Simons while Donald Trump was president.

Shortly after Khan was appointed as FTC chair in 2021, Amazon filed a petition with the commission that argued "she should be recused in investigations of the company, in light of her extensive past criticisms of Amazon."

The commission hasn't publicly responded to that petition.

The FTC has also been investigating non-antitrust issues related to Amazon.

Amazon had complained about the FTC's probe and accused the FTC of making excessive and unreasonable demands on founder Jeff Bezos and company executives.