Re:Amazon’s New Competitive Advantage: Putting Its Own Produ...
by bingdig on Monday June 08, 2020 @05:14PM
(#23460891)
Sure, there could be some corruption going on, but theres a much more mundane legal reason the DOJ won't bring cases. They often won't prosecute because the costs of losing anti-trust cases are so high, largely because of the way antitrust law is written. When the DOJ brings a case and loses, the agency loses all future power to bring a similar case because precedent is binding, so they only prosecute the most obvious anti-trust violations. As all these conflicting comments in this thread and related articles suggest - an antitrust case against Amazon is quite complex and not your straightforward monopoly or price fixing case.
The problem (IMO) is that there is no political pressure for the Justice Department to seek corrective action against these near-monopolies.
The lack of action (IMO) comes from two motivations...
1. The desire for US politicians to see US companies attain global near-monopoly status as a mechanism to help propagate US policy & surveillance.
2. The campaign finance influence these corporations buy through lobbying in Congress and their local/state officials.
1 & 2 aren't even all that independent. Amazon didn't setup HQ2 in DC for nothing. Bezos even literally bought the largest mansion in DC explicitly to host congressional networking events.
The solution is simple, in principle. Nurture, fund, and support alternatives to these companies. Realistically, globalization means there is little hope for regulatory breakups in America's future.