Amazon Is the Target of Small-Business Antitrust Campaign

Merchant groups are forming a national coalition to campaign for stricter antitrust laws, including measures they hope could force Amazon.com to spin off some of its business lines. From a report: The effort is being launched Tuesday by trade groups that represent small hardware stores, office suppliers, booksellers, grocers and others, along with business groups from 12 cities, organizers say. Merchants plan to push their congressional representatives for stricter antitrust laws and tougher enforcement of existing ones. The groups, which collectively represent thousands of businesses, want federal legislation that would prevent the owner of a dominant online marketplace from selling its own products in competition with other sellers, a policy that could effectively separate Amazon's retail product business from its online marketplace. Members of the House Antitrust Subcommittee are considering legislation along those lines as they weigh changes to U.S. antitrust law, though no bill has yet been introduced. The merchant groups also want tougher enforcement of competition laws and legal changes that would make it easier for the government to win antitrust lawsuits against big companies.

It is ever the case...

[MSTCrow5429]

...that when a competitor cannot compete on price or service, their envy and impotence resorts to government.

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[Errol backfiring]

And not without reason. "Government" or breaking laws could very well be the reason why they can't compete. I am curious as to see how this one works out.

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[Shaeun]

It's interesting to me that Amazon is being painted as the victim.

this is the type of stuff they do.
https://slate.com/technology/2... [slate.com]
Seems like someone going after the anti-competitive monopolist is a good thing. After all - selling at a loss to kill another company is supposed to be unlawful.

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[spun]

Put another way, "When a victim cannot defend themselves from a thief with weapons or locks, their envy and impotence resorts to calling the police."

You are basically saying the little guy should roll over and let themselves get fucked, rather than using the laws as intended. Do you fellate all powerful organizations, or does Amazon have a special place in your mouth?

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[MSTCrow5429]

Oh, no, vuglar one. I'm actually pretty pissed at Amazon overall. I just have principles.

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[spun]

Here's the thing: corporations use unfair and illegal tactics to "corner the market" because they hate competition and love profit. Capitalists despise the free market, so what "principles" are you claiming here? The rich should get richer, while the poor suffer? People shouldn't organize together and form mutual aid societies (i.e. government) to protect themselves from sociopaths?

You haven't thought your principles through very well, have you. I mean, some very bad people had principles, and those princip

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[MSTCrow5429]

Ok, you're right that principles qua principles are not inherently good or bad. And you're right, rent-seeking corporations hate competition. I'm 100% free-market. Most capitalists are more statist than not. With a free-market, would Amazon be anywhere as large and successful as it is now? Almost certainly not. But whether it's a small cartel trying to squash competition, or an industry behemoth playing crony capitalist, that's wrong, and I fully oppose it. Those are my principles.

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[spun]

Fair enough, and a consistent position. My take is that a free market it like any other sort of freedom, bad actors will use that freedom to their advantage. Regulation is simply the necessary police work we must do in order to keep the market free, rather than letting bad actors turn it into their own captive fiefdom. Just like anything else, regulation is neither inherently good nor bad, it depends on how it is used. And in the end, we the people are responsible for making sure it is used right.

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[theshowmecanuck]

This is marked as a troll, and the guy might be in many cases, but in this case this is a valid starting point for discussion. In fact it is an essential starting point. Ultimately it may be wrong and/or skewed, it is a point that needs to be discussed. I think someone should mark up so it is included, not -1.

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[MSTCrow5429]

Thanks, I think.

Interesting this is targeted at "online" stores...

[Anonymous Coward]

Interesting it's online only as many major bands and stores sell their own brands next to brand unrelated to them. Grocery stores, WalMart, Target, Lowes, Home Depot, even "smaller" chains like convenience stores...

Up with small business!

[wakeboarder]

Down with Amazon! Stop the money from going to the top! Ditch amazon!

Re:Up with small business!

[hey!]

I wouldn't mind all the business going to one great super-conglomerate to rule them all, if we lived in a world where politicians and senior government bureaucrats couldn't be bought.

But allowing a business to control a key segment of the economy and write its own laws and regulations would be a return to a kind of neo-feudalism.

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[cusco]

Our investment advisor is salivating at the thought of Amazon spinning off some of its lines of business. I wouldn't mind my shares of AMZN splitting into a share for AWS, another for Media, one for Hardware and another for Logistics, plus of course Retail. The feeding frenzy on Wall Street for shares of pure AWS stock would be intense, they're building data centers literally as fast as they can pour concrete and still can barely keep up with demand. Logistics is performing better than the former FedEx c

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[smooth wombat]

Down with Amazon! Stop the money from going to the top! Ditch amazon!

I have said several times before if people are upset with how Amazon treats its workers, or how it shamelessly rips off other retailers, or how rich Bezos is, the easiest thing to do is to stop buying from them.

Instead, excuse after excuse is tossed out why this isn't feasible. Apparently not frequenting a business is too difficult a task.

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[wakeboarder]

I've done that. And also amazon charges a premium for their services. You can find much better prices elsewhere

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[Bethany_Saint]

I purchase from Amazon because I get the best price (including shipping) and fast delivery. I always compare and purchase from other places if the price is lower. Almost always the best deal on what I'm shopping for is from Amazon.

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[AlexHilbertRyan]

The world is full of idiots, look at how many people goto church and pray for nothing in return.

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[Anonymous Coward]

You really don't understand religion do you?

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[Admiral Krunch]

You really don't understand religion do you?

I prayed for a magic rock to keep tigers away and Jesus sent me 3 !
I can sell a spare one to you if you'd like.

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[AlexHilbertRyan]

> You really don't understand religion do you?
Whats there to understand ? that all religions are here inventions and only present today because of rich and powerful men found them useful for their own ruling ? Or perhaps the part that all religion is full of lies and false promises and claims ?

Lets see, the bible, please tell me in the OT, when the authors are known what professions are the authors ? Were they poor farmers - that cant be right, for starters writing material costs several days wages,

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[AlexHilbertRyan]

> You really don't understand religion do you?
Is this from the perspective of dirty old men who take 10 year old girls as wives by the millions in certain parts of the world ?
Or is this from the perspective of the fact that for all human history, most religions have been cared for and allowed to exist by the local king ? Take the bible, we only have that today thanks to the Roman Empire, the OT thanks to the jewish kings and their mates the high priest and the koran thanx to various caliphates. Want

Hey!

[cascadingstylesheet]

Amazon Is the Target of Small-Business Antitrust Campaign

How dare you suggest that the Organization Against Businesses Not In Our Organization (OABNIOO) has anything but the purest motives?

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[cusco]

Did you know that most of what is sold on Amazon is is being sold by third party sellers, and the majority of those are small and medium businesses?

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[DutchDopey]

No, MS has such a fragmented book keeping they you cannot tell what is Azure en what is Xbox for example. So how you can compare is beyond me. Apple and google are consumer stuff. We'll talk when its too late.

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[theshowmecanuck]

They didn't.

so basically

[renegade600]

this group want store brands to be outlawed.

The amount of ignorance here....

[whitroth]

I'll ignore the self-proclaimed Nazis....

But let's see: those who think that small businesses have no right to complain.... how do you feel about, say, China dumping steel on the US at below-market prices? How do you feel about Indian consulting firms, massively underpaying their programmers, killing your jobs/contracts by massively underbidding you?

Then there was the news story I heard, what, 20 years ago, about a town out West (US), where Walmart came in on the outskirts of town, drove Every. Single. Busi

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[SkonkersBeDonkers]

You are making totally valid points but it is also a bit unfair to single out Amazon when it's really the entire "big box" industry that is to blame. Amazon may be putting the final nails in the coffins but it's really Wal-mart, Target, Best Buy, Home Depot, Lowes, etc, etc that drove things to the brink.

Which I guess to my mind, it wouldn't surprise me if these supposedly grass roots efforts are being pushed by Amazon's big box competitors. Not to say there aren't real small businesses being affected, bu

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[cusco]

I just find it amusing that Walmart, Target, Kroger and the like destroyed downtown business districts across North America in the 80s and 90s but people blame it somehow on Amazon, which didn't even start selling books online until 1996.

American gov working for the people

[AlexHilbertRyan]

another good example of american freedom and democracy.

Kill Amazon

[WindBourne]

Give it all to Alibaba instead.
Oh...