In un articolo su Vox si prova a far luce sui piani dell’amministrazione Biden riguardo Amazon, che secondo la FTC (Federal Trade Commission) costituirebbe un monopolio illegale.

Il 26 settembre scorso la FTC, incaricata di proteggere i consumatori americani da truffe e pratiche di mercato scorrette, ha fatto causa ad Amazon assieme a 17 stati, accusando il colosso dell’e-commerce di aver gonfiato i prezzi, danneggiato venditori terzi sulla piattaforma, e ostacolato l’emergere di altre piattaforme. La causa sarebbe stata fortemente voluta dalla presidentessa dell’FTC, Lina Khan.

“These tactics enable Amazon to protect its monopoly power from competitive checks,” Khan said in a briefing with reporters. “And Amazon is now exploiting that monopoly power to harm its customers, both the tens of millions of families that shop on Amazon’s platform and the hundreds of thousands of sellers that use Amazon to reach them.” […]

“If we succeed, competition will be restored and people will benefit from lower prices, greater quality, greater selection as a result,” Khan said.

La causa sembra incentrata in particolar modo sui rivenditori che utilizzano la piattaforma Marketplace (e da cui derivano il 60% delle vendite di Amazon), che per operarvi sarebbero obbligati ad acquistare servizi da Amazon stessa, oppure scomparire dal mercato.

One way it does this, the suit says, is through search ads, which allow sellers to have their products placed prominently in customer searches, above products that organically earned a top spot. The lawsuit alleges that Amazon has increased the number of ads in search results over the years, making sellers feel that the only way potential customers will see their products at all is if they pay Amazon for ads. This makes the shopping experience worse for consumers who have to wade through them to find organic results.

La causa riguarda anche l’agognato “buy box”.

When several sellers offer the same product, Amazon picks which one gets the sale when a customer clicks to make a purchase — whether “add to cart” or “buy now.” That’s the buy box. Everyone else is relegated to an “other sellers” section, which is farther down the page. Most customers don’t bother or even know to check it, which makes that buy box placement crucial for sellers.

But Amazon has certain conditions that make it more likely that the seller will get that buy box — or, if they don’t comply with them, make it impossible to get it at all. Those conditions often mean giving Amazon more money.