Amazon has been accused of being an illegal monopoly by US authorities.
The Federal Trade Commission has condemned the e-commerce giant for using a set of interlocking anticompetitive and unfair strategies" to increase prices and muffle competition in a new lawsuit.
The Jeff-Bezos company called the claims wrong on the facts and law” and went on to outline how they looked “forward to making that case in court".
The head of the FTC Lina Khan - who was appointed to the position in 2021 - has been pursuing Amazon for a number of years. For example, in 2017, she published an academic article that alleged the website had dodged anti-competition scrutiny.
At the time, she said: "With its missionary zeal for consumers, Amazon has marched toward monopoly.”
Now, the FTC - along with 17 other state attorneys - say that Amazon is a “monopolist” that hinders competitors by lowering their prices.
They also claim that the online store’s behaviour "degrade quality for shoppers, overcharge sellers, stifle innovation, and prevent rivals from fairly competing against Amazon".
Amazon have dubbed the claims “misguided” and says it the FTC win, their array of products will lessen, become more costly, and customers will face slower deliveries.
This case comes after the landmark legal proceedings kicked off between Google and the US federal government after they alleged the tech giant of stifling competition by making their search engine the default on many devices.
The company’s lawyers said: "There are lots of ways users access the web, other than through default search engines, and people use them all the time.”
