FTC to file antitrust case against Amazon as soon as Tuesday

The Federal Trade Commission will file a long-awaited antitrust lawsuit against Amazon in federal court as soon as Tuesday, Politico reported on Friday, kicking off the latest leg in the US effort to rein in the market power of Big Tech companies.

The legal action, which would follow federal lawsuits filed against Alphabet’s Google and Meta’s Facebook, has been expected after years of complaints that the big tech companies abused their dominance. Amazon.com, for example, has been accused of buying competitors to thwart competition and abusing third-party sellers on its platform, among other allegations.

The FTC has sent a draft complaint to the states trying to get them to sign on, a source told Reuters, a step that generally indicates a lawsuit is close to being filed.

Amazon did not immediately comment. The FTC declined to comment.

The exact details of the pending lawsuit were not known.

The American tech giant has been criticized for allegedly favoring its own products and disfavoring outside sellers on its platform. The company has denied the allegations.

FTC chairperson Lina Khan authored a Yale Law Journal article in 2017, in which she said Amazon’s structure and practices posed anti-competitive concerns and has escaped antitrust scrutiny.