And yet, there is no question that the trust busters are now on its case, and for the next few years it will be tied up in endless legal battles to keep its empire intact. True, it is very, very big, and its use of customer data is, to put it mildly, not exactly transparent.Įven so, it has generated huge amounts of wealth, offered an open platform to millions of small businesses, and driven prices down for consumers while offering amazing levels of service. In fairness, much of the criticism of Amazon is unreasonable. Across the world, regulators have it in their sites. The British regulators are now looking at it again, and in Brussels there has been a constant series of investigations aimed at curbing its overwhelming power. With some justification, it views Amazon as the Standard Oil of the 21st century and has started the process of forcing its break up. But the FTC’s endgame is already becoming clear. It remains to be seen whether the action is successful or not. It will focus in particular on its Prime unit, which cleverly locks customers into its vast range of products, as well as its advertising unit, and the way it encourages vendors to advertise on its system, potentially rigging what should be an open market in its favour. Over the next couple of weeks, the FTC is expected to launch a legal assault on Amazon. It already looks set to be one of the great regulatory battles of all time. In reality, instead of spending years fighting the regulators through the courts, it would be better for the company and its shareholders to take control of its own fate – and split itself up before it is forced to. Against that, each unit would be a lot more focused, and easier to manage. Sure, it would lose some of the synergies between each one. In fact, it can be divided neatly into three businesses retailing, streaming services, and cloud computing. Amazon could simply save all the lawyers a lot of trouble and break itself up. And the stage is set for an epic series of legal battles as Amazon tries to keep its corporate empire together.īut hold on. But in the United States the Federal Trade Commission is expected to launch its blockbuster legal action against Amazon very soon.Ĭoming at the same time as British and European Union regulators are targeting the internet giant, the forced break-up of one the world’s most powerful businesses is getting more likely all the time. It might even drag on until the start of September. It might wait until the middle of August.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |