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.”
More Amazon news
Drunken online shopping is big business — especially for Amazon
Drunk shopping is an estimated $48 billion industry 85 percent of drunk shoppers visit and make ill-advised purchases on Amazon Tech and business newsletter The Hustle surveyed more than 2,000 alcohol-drinking adults about their online shopping behaviour...
Jeff Bezos: Smart people make decisions differently than everyone else
Smart people tend to change their mind a lot Smart people are open to new points of view, new information, new ideas, contradictions, and challenges to their own way of thinking Jason Fried, co-founder of Basecamp and co-author of the New York Times...
Amazon is forced to end its “Price parity” policy
Amazon quietly ends controversial pricing agreements with sellers Amazon will no longer require its third-party sellers to price their products lower than on other competing websites It quietly eliminated a clause in its contracts that critics have called...
