Walmart and Oracle are secretly funding anti-Amazon campaign

Amazon’s main rivals – Walmart, Oracle and mall owner Simon Property Group – are secret funders of a grassroots campaign that has been highly critical of the e-commerce giant.

About 18 months ago a new nonprofit group called Free and Fair Markets Initiative launched a national campaign criticizing the business practices of one powerful company: Amazon.com Inc, reports The Wall Street Journal.

It has accused Amazon of stifling competition and innovation, endangering the lives of its warehouse workers, data breaches and an over acceptance of government subsides, writes TheDrum.

Free & Fair Markets has kept its funders secret and falsely claimed that average citizens support the group. In fact, it received backing from some of Amazon’s chief corporate rivals, including shopping mall owner Simon Property Group, retailer Walmart and software giant Oracle Corp, reports MarketWatch.

Simon Property is fighting to keep shoppers who now prefer to buy what they need on Amazon; Walmart is competing with Amazon over retail sales; and Oracle is battling Amazon over a $10 billion Pentagon cloud-computing contract.

The story reflects the lengths that companies are willing to go to help curb Amazon’s market share. It’s also an example of mounting pressure on Amazon from similar groups and lawmakers who are questioning the company’s growing footprint and power, writes GeekWire.

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