Core States Group
MONTH-IN-BRIEF (Nov 2023)
Antitrust Law
What Is the FTC Actually Claiming in Its Amazon Lawsuit?
By Kasia Hebda, Troutman, Pepper, Hamilton, Sanders, LLP
There has been much press about the impact of Amazon’s strategies on competition, and most recently, much of that press has been related to the lawsuit of the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) against Amazon. The FTC, joined by the attorney generals of seventeen states, sued Amazon in the District Court for the Western District of Washington, alleging that Amazon was engaged in unfair methods of competition in violation of Section 5(a) of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. § 45(a), Section 2 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. § 2, and state competition and consumer protection laws. In the more than 150-page complaint, the FTC alleges that Amazon has engaged in anticompetitive conduct to maintain its monopoly power in two relevant markets: (1) the online superstore market that serves households; and (2) the online marketplace services market that serves sellers.