Amazon scooped up data from its own sellers to launch competing products

Re:Amazon scooped up data from its own sellers to launch com... by munificent on Thursday April 23, 2020 @12:24PM (#22957675)

Lack of competition drives prices up too.

Once there is only one paper towel manufacturer left, what is to prevent it from raising prices?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Amazon scooped up data from its own sellers to launch com... by spaced-out on Thursday April 23, 2020 @01:04PM (#22958155)

At that point it would be an actual monopoly, and we can break that company up.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Amazon scooped up data from its own sellers to launch com... by sneak on Thursday April 23, 2020 @02:38PM (#22959410)

There’s no evidence that that mechanism is effective any longer. The United States regulators seem to be entirely content with fake not-monopolies (eg ISPs) lying about how much competition they have, and let monopolies or duopolies fleece millions for essential services or products as long as they spend the requisite amount of kickback via lobbying.

Admittedly those are public utilities but the attitude seems to hold true in antitrust as well. Walmart is probably the best example there, or now Amazon as evidenced by TFA.

Sometimes I wonder why Walmart and Comcast are allowed to behave this way while T-Mobile is not. (EDIT: Google says “nevermind”: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/19/technology/sprint-t-mobil...)

[ Parent | on HN ]