Amazon – a trillion-dollar corporation ‘cheats’: Both selling products and controlling the dominant platform specializing in selling those products, is a monster that no one can overthrow

US Senator Elizabeth Warren is pushing to the idea of ​​splitting up Amazon, saying the $1.7 trillion company is simply “too powerful”.

” Amazon has power and they use it to crush small businesses before they get a foothold, ” Elizabeth told CNN in a phone interview.

Elizabeth thinks it’s unfair that Amazon is both the seller of products like shirts, pet food and sneakers, and the one that controls the dominant platform where those products are sold. .

She said: ” You can only be the referee or the player on the field. But you can’t be both. Yet Amazon is holding both positions. What is the solution here? Must split Amazon “.

Overall, Amazon, Facebook and Big Tech are now heavily criticized by politicians from both parties in the US. Most of these people are concerned about the huge amount of power that big tech has accumulated.

For Facebook, critics’ main concern is that the social media giant hasn’t done enough to prevent the spread of misinformation or protect user data.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff recently told CNN that “the deception that spreads like wildfire” on Facebook is responsible for much of what happens to America today, from the climate crisis to Covid-19. For its part, Facebook insists it has made meaningful improvements to prevent misinformation, including conspiracy theories about vaccines.

CHEAT

With Amazon, Ms. Warren said the company used its power to “cheat”.

Critics of Amazon argue that the company has unfairly taken advantage of retail stores and other competitors.

Warren said: ” Once a monopoly starts to grow, it becomes an order of existence. Amazon started out as the dominant book delivery service. And then they started to evolve into other products. and become the dominant delivery service. Now Amazon is like a monster that has to be fed every minute .”

Amazon currently declined to comment on Warren’s comment. However, an Amazon spokesperson pointed to several blog posts from a year ago that defended the idea of ​​splitting the company.

First, Amazon warned that ” divergent antitrust concepts ” would ” kill independent retailers and punish consumers “. It happens when forcing small businesses out of online stores, raising prices, and cutting consumer choice and convenience.

” All major organizations attract the attention of regulators, and we welcome that scrutiny, ” Amazon wrote in the post. ” But the big companies don’t dominate, and the accusations that their success is the result of anti-competitive behavior are false .”

Today, Amazon has expanded into everything from entertainment to groceries to prescription drugs. It is also a leader in the booming cloud services market.

” Amazon possesses two things that put them at risk: Economic and political power. Their economic power comes from the dominance of the Amazon.com platform but they extend that dominance with how to use this platform to cheat ,” Warren said. ” Then they use their political power to keep the authorities from holding them accountable .”

Amazon points out that it accounts for less than 1% of the $25 trillion global retail market and less than 4% of retail sales in the US. The company added that it’s not even the largest US retailer (it’s Walmart) and that it has to compete with “big, established companies” like Target, Costco, Kroger, Home Depot and Best Buy .

“INTERNAL INFORMATION”

Warren referred to a Reuters investigation that used a series of internal Amazon documents to show how the company carried out a ” systematic campaign to create fakes and manipulate search results. ” . The aim is to help boost sales of its own product lines in India, one of their biggest growth markets.

The report found that Amazon’s private brands in India exploited internal data to copy products sold by other companies and then make them available on the Amazon platform.

” These allegations are inaccurate and unfounded. Amazon does not offer incentives to any sellers on its platform, ” Amazon said in commenting on the Reuters report.

Amazon says it has a policy that ” prohibits the use or sharing of non-public, seller-specific data with sellers, including with sellers of private brands, ” and the company will investigate any any reports of employees violating this policy.

Amazon emphasizes that the way it displays product search results does not favor its own branded products.

Warren, of course, doesn’t trust Amazon.

Warren said: ” How can Amazon build a significant presence in the clothing sector? The answer is that they have inside information about what Indians are buying. Most people think about anti-toxicity. Power is simply the area in which a company is active, but what Amazon has shown is how one company can dominate in one area and then leverage that to dominate in many others. more ‘.

Of course, many still consider Amazon a laudable success story. Founded by Jeff Bezos in a garage in 1994, Amazon is now worth more than almost any other company on the planet.

Amazon says it has created nearly a million jobs in the US alone over the past decade. And the company has created a huge fortune for its shareholders.

When asked if criticizing Amazon would be seen as disrespectful to the company’s success, Warren laughed and said:

” I love the market. But for the market to work, there must be competition rules. And Amazon doesn’t respect those rules .”

Source: CNN