In 2017, Lina Kahn wrote an article about Amazon (AMZN) -), warning that the "elements of the firm’s structure and conduct pose anticompetitive concerns—yet it has escaped antitrust scrutiny."
Amazon, Kahn wrote in the Yale Law Journal, "has evaded government scrutiny in part through fervently devoting its business strategy and rhetoric to reducing prices for consumers."
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"It's as if (Amazon founder Jeff) Bezos chartered the company's growth by first drawing a map of antitrust laws and then devising routes to smoothly bypass them," she wrote.
Kahn went on to become chairperson of the Federal Trade Commission, and now that agency is planning to file a lawsuit against the world's biggest online retailer later this month, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The lawsuit will target a number of Amazon’s business practices, such as its Fulfillment by Amazon logistics program and pricing on Amazon.com by third-party sellers, the Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.
Lawsuit will suggest 'structural remedies'
In addition, the lawsuit will suggest that Amazon makes “structural remedies” that could lead to a break up of the company.
The FTC has been examining the company's practices, including whether it favors its own products over competitors’ on its platforms and how it treats outside sellers on Amazon.com.
The agency didn’t outline for Amazon what sorts of remedies it would find acceptable, information that Amazon officials had pressed the commission to provide.
In light of the FTC’s years-long investigation of Amazon, the Journal said, it is unclear whether concessions would have stopped the agency from filing a lawsuit.
Top members of Amazon’s legal team reportedly had a video call with FTC officials on Aug. 15.
The so-called "last-rites" meeting, which is often a final step before a court battle, was a chance for the tech giant to make its case to the regulator to head off a possible lawsuit that officials have been working on for many months.
During these meetings, companies have the opportunity to offer to preemptively change their business practices in order to avoid a lawsuit. But, Amazon’s lawyers didn’t offer specific concessions, the Journal reported.
The company's lawyers reiterated the argument to each of the commissioners, including Khan, that changes to Amazon could result in higher prices and slower shipping speeds to customers.
'A change in legal thinking'
In her Yale Law Journal article, Khan wrote that "in some ways, the story of Amazon sustained and growing dominance is also story of changes in our antitrust laws."
"Due to a change in legal thinking and practice in the 1970s and 1980s," she said, "antitrust law now assesses competition largely with an eye to the short term interests of consumers, not producers or the health of the market as a whole."
"Antitrust doctrine views low consumer prices alone to be evidence of sound competition," she wrote. "By this measure Amazon has excelled."
Amazon declined to comment on the story. The FTC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In June, the FTC sued Amazon accusing the company of enrolling millions of consumers into its $139-per-year paid subscription Prime service without their consent and making it hard for them to cancel the plan.
During Kahn’s tenure, the FTC also forced Amazon to return $61.7 million in tips back to drivers in its Flex program and required the company to delete voice recordings, especially from children, picked up by the Alexa voice assistant.
Last month, Amazon beat Wall Street's second-quarter expectations, as the company posted its biggest earnings beat since its report for the fourth quarter of 2020.
WIRED recently reported that Amazon’s in-house clinics were pushing injured employees to continue working.
An Amazon spokesperson disputed the claims in the report, saying that suggestions of intentional or systematic delays of medical care are “false.”
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