The U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s case of accusing Amazon with regards to stifling competition in online retail is all set to move forward. Although the documents present in the court showed that some of the states that sued alongside the agency had their claims dismissed. However, the U.S. District Judge John Chun in Seattle unsealed his ruling from Sept. 30. This led to the dismissal of some of the claims which was brought by attorneys general in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Oklahoma.
Nevertheless, during last year, the FTC alleged that Amazon.com, which had over one billion items in its online superstore, was using an algorithm that pushed up prices in the U.S. households. Mainly U.S. households which were paid by more than $1 billion US. However, with regards to this, Amazon had stated in the court papers that it stopped using the program in 2019.
About Amazon
Amazon is an American multinational technology company. It is engaged in e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. The firm is considered as one of the Big Five American technology companies. The other four firms include Alphabet (the parent company of Google), Apple, Meta (parent company of Facebook), and Microsoft.
Amazon was founded on July 5, 1994, by Jeff Bezos in Bellevue, Washington. The company originally started as an online marketplace for books. However, it gradually expanded its offerings to include a wide range of product categories. This diversification led to it being referred to as “The Everything Store”.
What Has Amazon Done?
Amazon, which has 1 billion items in its online superstore, created a secret algorithm internally code. This code was named as ‘Project Nessie’ to identify specific products for which it predicts that the other online stores will follow Amazon’s price increases. Certain reports also state that Amazon used Project Nessie to extract more than a billion dollars directly from Americans’ pocketbooks. This was what the FTC said.
What Has Been The Reputation of Amazon All These Days?
Amazon has a reputation of being the disruptor of industries through technological innovation and aggressive reinvestment of profits into capital expenditures. As of 2023, it is the world’s largest online retailer and marketplace. It is also a smart speaker provider, cloud computing service through AWS, live-streaming service through Twitch, and Internet company. This is stated as measured by revenue and market share.
In 2021, it surpassed Walmart as the world’s largest retailer outside of China. This was driven in large part by its paid subscription plan, Amazon Prime, which has close to 200 million subscribers worldwide. It is also the second-largest private employer in the United States. Plus, it is the second-largest company in the World and in the U.S. by revenue as of 2024.
As of October 2024, Amazon is the 12th-most visited website in the world. 84% of its traffic comes from the United States. Amazon is also the global leader in research and development spending, with R&D expenditure of US$73 billion in 2022.
What More Has Amazon Been Charged Of?
The FTC has as of now accused the online retailer of using anti-competitive tactics strongly. All of this was done to maintain dominance among online superstores and marketplaces. Amazon has also asked Chun to dismiss the case in December. It said in a statement that the FTC had raised no evidence of harm to consumers. The judge with regard to this, said in his ruling that he cannot consider Amazon company’s claims that its actions benefited competition at this early stage in the case.
Conclusion
Amazon as of now has been criticized on various grounds. This on a large scale is including of a lot of accusations. Much of the accusations state that the firm is not limited to customer data collection practices, a toxic work culture, censorship, tax avoidance, and anti-competitive practices.
Amazon has also attracted criticism for its actions. These are connected to that of supplying the law enforcement with facial recognition surveillance tools, forming cloud computing partnerships with the CIA. It has also gotten forward into leading the customers away from bookshops. Thus, it has adversely gotten down into impacting the environment. It has also placed a certain level of low priority on warehouse conditions for workers, and actively opposing unionization efforts.
However, regardless of all of this, this multinational company is still good in all forms. This is because a lot of users have commented about it being very flexible and having everything in it. Thus, although there might be many dark sides to the firm. Multiple, golden sides prevail too.