Amazon rivals offer help to antitrust investigators
Some of the biggest retailers in America have thrown their weight behind antitrust investigations into Amazon and Google.
The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), which counts Walmart, Target, and Best Buy among its members, wrote a 10-page letter to the Federal Trade Commission, saying it would be happy to assist with regulatory probes, reports Business Insider.
One of the main concerns raised in the letter is to do with tech giants controlling how people search online. “It should… be quite concerning to the Commission that Amazon and Google control the majority of all of Internet product search, and can very easily affect whether and how price and product information actually reaches customers,” the letter said.
RILA takes particular aim at Amazon for “degrading the consumer experience on its own platform,” and said the company “tends to deceive consumers” by pretending to sell directly from trusted brands, even when those brands choose to remain off the platform and their merchandise is being sold on by third-party sellers.
The retailers’ letter turns up the heat on rivals like Amazon. Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren is among those to have said that Amazon’s role as both marketplace and vendor is a prime reason for breaking up Jeff Bezos’ company.
More Amazon news
Jeff Bezos took the controls of some huge robotic hands
Bezos Expects Robotic Hands To Be Ready Within 10 YearsJeff Bezos took control of a pair of giant remote-controlled robot hands at Amazon's re:MARS robotics conference in Las Vegas.The hands don't just mirror the movement of the person wearing the gloves —...
Amazon may soon face an antitrust probe
Here are 3 questions the FTC is asking about it The Federal Trade Commission has been questioning Amazon’s competitors about its Prime service and how it competes with its own marketplace sellers. Amazon and its fellow tech giants will soon find themselves the focus...
Amazon is working on a device that will read human emotions
Amazon brings sci-fi tech to life Amazon is developing a voice-activated wearable device that can recognize human emotional state, turning Sci-fi tech into reality The wrist-worn gadget is described as a health and wellness product in internal documents...
