Lina Khan, FTC Chair, Aims to Loosen Amazon's Iron Grip on Online Marketplaces

COUNT II: MONOPOLY MAINTENANCE OF THE ONLINE MARKETPLACE SERVICES MARKET (15 U.S.C. § 45(a))

448. Plaintiff FTC re-alleges and incorporates by reference the allegations in paragraphs 1-447 above.

449. At all relevant times, Amazon has had monopoly power in the worldwide market for online marketplace services for U.S. customers.

450. Amazon has willfully maintained its monopoly power through its course of anticompetitive and exclusionary conduct, including Amazon’s anti-discounting practices, which stifle price competition and tend to create an artificial price floor, and Amazon’s practice of coercing sellers who want their products to be Prime eligible into using Fulfillment by Amazon, which makes it more difficult and more expensive for rivals to offer increased product selection.

451. Although each of these acts is anticompetitive in its own right, these interrelated and independent actions have had a cumulative and synergistic effect that has harmed competition and the competitive process.

452. There is no valid procompetitive justification for Amazon’s anticompetitive and exclusionary conduct in the online marketplace services market.

453. Amazon’s anticompetitive and exclusionary conduct constitutes unlawful monopoly maintenance, in violation of Section 5(a) of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. § 45(a), and Section 2 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. § 2.