US Treasury Secretary criticizes Amazon

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that Amazon “destroyed the retail industry across the United States”.

In his opinion the attorney general should investigate the company alongside other tech giants in the sweeping antitrust review that the Justice Department announced on Tuesday, reports TheVerge.

Mnuchin said that “although there’s certain benefits to Amazon’s success, the company has really hurt small businesses in the process”.

The Justice Department announced that it would begin a review into whether major online platforms have “reduced competition, stifled innovation, or otherwise harmed consumers.” While Amazon was not mentioned by name, the assumption is that the DOJ will be looking at it alongside other tech giants, like Facebook and Google, that also vastly dominate their fields.

Amazon responded to Mnuchin’s remarks with a comment saying that its platform helps small businesses and that physical stores still dominate retail sales. “Small and medium-sized businesses are thriving with Amazon,” a spokesperson said. They said that Amazon represents “less than 4 percent of US retail,” and that 90 percent of retail sales “still occur in brick-and-mortar stores according to the US Census Bureau.”

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