United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is reportedly set to introduce a lawsuit to break up parts of e-commerce giant Amazon’s business. The lawsuit is expected to be filed in a US federal court next month.
According to a Politico report, FTC will target several Amazon business practices as part of the lawsuit. The FTC complaint could focus on alleged anti-competitive practices of the firm which force retailers to use its services.
The report stated that the commission, led by Lina Khan, has interviewed several executives of the firm, including CEO Andy Jassy. FTC has also reportedly interviewed founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos.
Notably, the commission had filed another complaint against the firm last month, alleging that it used “deceptive” practices to get users to sign up for the Prime service. “Specifically, Amazon used manipulative, coercive, or deceptive user-interface designs known as ‘dark patterns’ to trick consumers into enrolling in automatically-renewing Prime subscriptions,” the FTC had said in its complaint.
In another case regarding storage of Alexa and Ring data, the firm had to pay a settlement amount of over $30 million. While the firm denied any wrongdoing, it said in a statement that the settlement allowed all parties to end the litigation in the matter.
The latest anti-trust lawsuit to break up Amazon’s business has been expected for some time now. Lina Khan, the current chairperson of the organisation, had written a paper when she was a law student which called for Amazon’s power to be curbed. Due to her past statements, the firm had accused her of bias. However, the commission looks all set to pursue one of the biggest lawsuit to break up a $1.9 trillion empire.
