Amazon, the online retailer founded on July 5, 1994, has run into a bit of trouble. On September 29, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and 17 state attorneys sued Amazon for using interlocking anti-competitive and unfair strategies to illegally maintain its monopoly power.

The complainants claimed that Amazon violated the law by stifling prices, product selection and quality, and engaged in a course of exclusionary conduct which prevented current competitors from growing, and new competitors from emerging.

Jeff Bezos is the owner of Amazon and many other companies. Bezos started in his garage in Bellevue, Washington with the company Cadabra inc. He then changed the name to Amazon.com inc. because a lawyer misheard the original name as “Cadaver”. Bezos settled on the name Amazon because it was exotic and different. He said that the Amazon river was the biggest river in the world so he was going to make Amazon the biggest bookstore in the world. Today Amazon is one of the biggest online retailers in the world and has a net worth of 1483.55B and with more than 310 million users.

Amazon has stated that they wish that the FTC would see how they have innovated the retail market by giving the customers low prices and good customer service. If the lawsuit is successful it would force Amazon to engage in practices that hurt the customers by giving slower or unreliable prime shipping. Amazon says that they set lower prices to match other retailers online and offline. Amazon claimed that they invest billions in people, resources, and services to support sellers.

The FTC chair Lina Khan stated, “If we succeed, competition will be restored and people will benefit from lower prices, greater quality, greater selection as a result.” The FTC feels that if they were able to sue Amazon successfully then it will help small businesses.

Amazon’s so-called “Monopoly” is said to stop competitors from rising above them. But in recent years, you see companies like Temu and AliExpress who give good quality products for dirt cheap. These companies are being picked over Amazon on a daily basis.

The Amazon lawsuit is likely going to last for a long time, with California potentially suing Amazon in 2026. The FTC wants to make the retail business even, so that other companies are able to flourish. But we will just have to wait and see where this lawsuit goes.