Amazon Monopoly Debate

Relevant: Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox[1], especially sections III and IV1. https://www.yalelawjournal.org/note/amazons-antitrust-parado...

At what point does Amazon get into monopoly territory?

The FTC disagrees with you: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/09/...

Amazon's share of the US retail market is too small to call them a monopoly there, and they hold around half of online retailing, again too small to be a monopoly, since there are ample places to get goods elsewhere.Until they're a legal monopoly in some suitable category, they are welcome to do this. One effect may drive amazon competitors to cater to all the sellers. And at any rate, to be the top spot Amazon has to be offering good enough prices to get consumer dollars.For now

Amazon is creating value by reducing waste and streamlining distribution of goods. They operate in a fair market, and if they ever raise their prices later they'll be undercut by someone else, so they don't have a monopoly which you should fear. They do have some DRM in place with Kindles and such, but I believe you're overblowing this. What are you worried about in particular?

With its huge market share Amazon has practically a monopoly as a marketplace or as an online-retailer, depending how you define it.If a supermarket starts playing dirty there are many others in which you can sell your product. If Amazon steals your product, you have no other marketplace to turn to.Amazon gives an opportunity for many businesses to flourish, but then can kill them on a whim. "Live by the Amazon, die by the Amazon."

I don’t think this sort of regulation would happen unless they meet the criteria for a monopoly and I’m not a lawyer but I don’t think Amazon meets these criteria. It has competitors in every market it is currently in. Walmart, Target, and Etsy are all competing retailers online and physically. Azure competes with AWS. The process here on out to beat profitable and large competitors to wield monopoly power is incredibly difficult. I don’t see a problem if they enter new industries to find more o

Amazon has a 50+ % share of e-commerce in the US. By law, monopolies are not allowed to engage in anti-competitive behaviour including favouring some products or their own.

I think the argument is around anti-competitive behavior based on them controlling both the platform (Amazon Marketplace) and their own store (Amazon Basics/Whole Foods). This Verge article [1] cites the Diapers.com incident, where they basically cut prices until Diapers.com couldn't compete and had no choice but to be acquired.There are also the ongoing investigations in Germany around anti-competitive behaviors. [2]I'm not making a judgement on validity, just pointing to w

Amazon is nothing like a monopoly.If you want to sell something online you can do it in any number of places, and you can do it yourself (and fairly painlessly). If you want to buy something online, you can go to any number of retailers. You can get an Echo from Best Buy if you want, and you can get towels delivered from Walmart etc etc.Ditto cloud computing, of course -- it's an incredibly competitive market.Amazon does have large market impact and can (in a practical sense) exert