The U.S. Federal Commerce Fee has revamped its antitrust probe of Amazon.com Inc., shaking up the investigative workforce, re-interviewing potential witnesses and asking questions in regards to the firm’s current acquisition of MGM Studios, three folks aware of the probe stated.
The company has been Amazon since 2019 over antitrust considerations with its retail enterprise and cloud computing companies. Lina Khan, who turned chair of the company final yr, had made a reputation for herself with a groundbreaking authorized paper into Amazon’s potential antitrust violations and has taken a private curiosity within the probe.
She’s assigned the case to John Newman, an antitrust professor and former Justice Division prosecutor, who joined the FTC as a deputy director of competitors in December and has reorganized the workforce probing Amazon since taking it over, in line with the folks, who requested to not be recognized discussing private details about the state of affairs.
The company declined to touch upon the re-organization. Amazon didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The FTC’s focus below Trump
In the course of the administration of President Donald Trump, the FTC opted to prioritize an antitrust investigation into Fb and assigned solely two attorneys to the Amazon one, two of the folks stated.
Earlier than becoming a member of the FTC from Columbia Legislation Faculty, Khan labored as a staffer for the Home Judiciary antitrust subcommittee that had spent 16 months investigating Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Amazon, Apple Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. Khan centered on the Google part of what ultimately turned the panel’s 449-page report, whereas an FTC staffer detailed to the committee led the Amazon portion.
The panel’s report turned public in October 2020, however by final summer season the FTC investigation hadn’t damaged any new floor from what had been outlined within the congressional report, two of the folks stated.
After taking on the company, Khan helped draft some traces of questioning for investigators, one of many folks stated. Since then, FTC attorneys have homed in on points of the probe involving Amazon Net Companies, the corporate’s profitable cloud computing enterprise, and extra just lately the $8.45 billion MGM acquisition.
Amazon stated in March it closed its acquisition of the film studio when the FTC’s evaluation of the deal expired with no problem.
The FTC declined to remark instantly on the deal on the time however issued a press release that it “doesn’t approve transactions and will problem a deal at any time if it determines that it violates the legislation.”
FTC attorneys have been asking questions in regards to the MGM deal’s impression on the corporate’s video streaming service, Amazon Prime, two of the folks stated.
Khan opposition
Amazon has sought to sideline Khan, arguing that her previous work ought to preclude her from involvement in any FTC instances towards the corporate. An analogous recusal push by Fb was rejected by the company and a federal decide overseeing the FTC’s go well with towards the corporate.
The FTC isn’t the one regulator centered on Amazon. In response to an antitrust price-fixing investigation by the Washington state lawyer basic, the corporate agreed to pay a $2.25 million advantageous in January and shutter a program during which it agreed on pricing with third-party sellers, somewhat than compete with them.
Karl Racine, the lawyer basic for the District of Columbia, sued Amazon final yr, alleging the net retailer encourages higher-than-necessary client costs by way of insurance policies that assure the tech big a minimal revenue on every merchandise offered, whereas discouraging retailers on the positioning from providing their merchandise at decrease costs elsewhere.
A Superior Court docket decide dismissed the go well with in March, however DC is interesting with assist from the Biden administration. European regulators are additionally probing how the ecommerce big treats sellers on its platform.
