Economics: Why Is Lina Khan`s FTC Harassing Amazon?

(Drivebycuriosity)  The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), America´s powerful antitrust agency, is harassing Amazon. Recently Lina Khan, chair of FTC, and her lawyers sued the firm. They claim that Amazon used deceptive practices to manipulate consumers into signing up for its Prime offerings and then "sabotaged" attempts to cancel their accounts ( netchoice). Observers tested Khan`s accusation and were able to cancel Prime in less than 90 seconds, some needed just 30 seconds (twitter twitter  twitter). This week the FTC updated its complaint against Amazon and added three senior executives as defendants ( cnbc).

The media also report that Khan`s FTC prepares “the big one,” a major lawsuit targeting Amazon’s core business. Apparently the agency wants to attack Amazon´s market place (where others can sell on Amazon) and the 2-days shipment (bloomberg twitter cnbc  arstechnica). The lawsuit is expected for comming Tuesday.

The lawsuits are not surprising. FTC chair Khan build her career on Amazon bashing. In 2017, then being just a law student, the Khan published a paper with the claim that Amazon will become a monopolist ( reason   yalelawjournal  driveby). 

She declared that Amazon´s prices are "too low" (!), which will drive competitors out of business and will hinder potential competitors to emerge, ignoring the worldwide continuously growing number of Amazon competitors (driveby ). In 2021 President Biden made her chair of the FTC (inside nytimes). Apparently Biden dislikes big corporations like Amazon and wants to put them under control of Big Government.

Since the Khan is in command of the FTC she uses her power and employs the agency as weapon in her crusade against Amazon ( bloomberg).  The Biden protege claimed publicly, that the corporation is "guilty of antitrust violations and should be broken up." (yalejreg.com wsj.com).

Khan´s Amazon loathing is part of her hate on big business. The FTC chair belongs to a movement called Neo-Brandeisians (after Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, 1916-1939) who demand a radical change of America´s antitrust politics. They are working on a fundamental change of America´s economic structure and try to expand the role of the government in the U.S. economy significantly ( pbwt.com dailyjournal promarket reason). According to former FTC-Commissioner Christine S. Wilson the FTC represents a Marxist ideology and tries to replace the market process of supply and demand by a continuously regulated environment (ftc.gov ). 

Americans love Amazon Prime as a service. Poll after poll, and brand survey after brand survey, show that Amazon is one of the most favored institutions and among the most trusted brands in the US ( twitter). Amazon Prime membership has long offered benefits to consumers that other retailers have been unable to provide, such as free, fast shipping options and the ability to return products at a number of convenient locations ( netchoice). Antitrust activist Khan does not care. She just wants to destroy big corporations and bring them under her control.