Led by Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, the Biden administration is seeking to undermine the Amazon Prime service that customers highly value and that enables some 2 million small businesses in their marketplace.

That’s the topic Carrie Sheffield discussed on the BBC above. 

Monopolies are defined as entities that so dominate an industry that they no longer serve the interest of consumers, but can take advantage of them by jacking up prices and providing poor service. Yet it’s clear that Amazon is doing the opposite. 

Our IWF colleague Patrice Onwuka explained how, whatever is motivating the FTC’s war on Amazon, it isn’t on behalf of consumers. She makes three main points to refute the FTC’s claims:

1. Amazon is not pushing online prices higher…. 
2. Retail commerce is growing more competitive and innovative, not less.…
3. Independent sellers who do not use Amazon’s fulfillment services regularly beat out sellers who do in high-ranked search results. This discredits the argument that Amazon manipulates consumer search results to harm marketplace sellers who do not use its fulfillment services. 

The FTC’s actions are the latest chapter in growth-killing Bidenomic policies.

What’s interesting is that Khan, who is British-born, met with UK antitrust officials earlier this year, but now the British government is reforming its antitrust process after it received a sharp backlash from the public for its handling of the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard deal.

Perhaps we’ll see a similar walkback on our side of the pond once Amazon Prime customers realize what they could lose.