A Guide to Amazon’s Decade of Abusive power
Concern about the power and actions of Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon has exploded in recent years in every community and every business sector in America. But it is important to understand that the problem has been growing for many years. Ahead of Wednesday’s House hearing on antitrust in Big Tech, Open Markets offers a short history of its work – on Amazon alone – to show how long the problem has been building, and why it is vital to fix Big Tech now.
THE HISTORY
In February 2010, Open Markets hosted a panel discussion about Amazon’s threat to authors and readers, at the American Booksellers Association’s winter meeting with top editors.
In early 2010, Open Markets provided pro bono advice about Amazon’s power and actions to top book publishers as they prepared to make a formal complaint to the Department of Justice.
In February 2012, Open Markets published the first attack on Amazon’s power in a mainstream publication, in the article “Killing the Competition” in Harper’s.
In April 2012, Open Markets published an article in Slate on the Apple e-book decision. It helped to shape subsequent coverage of the issue and subsequent debate about Amazon’s power.
In 2015, Open Markets co-wrote letters with Authors United and the ABA to William Baer, the head of the Antitrust Division at the DOJ. A lead business article in the NYT covered this action.
In January 2016, Open Markets hosted the first policy discussion in Washington on Amazon’s danger to free expression, at the New America Foundation, where Open Markets was then based.
In June 2016, Open Markets hosted Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s groundbreaking speech on America’s Monopoly Problem. At the event, Pulitzer Prize-winning author TJ Stiles detailed Amazon’s threat to democracy.
In January 2017, Lina Khan published her Yale Law Review article Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox, as detailed in this NYT profile. Lina based much of this report on her work on Amazon at the Open Markets Institute, where she worked from July 2011 to June 2014.
In November 2017, Open Markets hosted Sen. Al Franken when he called for common carrier rules to apply to Amazon, Google, Facebook, and other platforms.
In 2017-18, Open Markets helped organize Athena, an anti-Amazon coalition of working people. This coalition was the first worker alliance since the 1930s to focus on the political dangers of monopoly.
In June 2018, Open Markets delivered this keynote speech at the UNI Global International meeting in Liverpool, before the two biggest international labor organizations in Europe.
In February 2020, Open Markets described the political dangers posed by Amazon in the PBS Frontline report on the corporation, “Amazon Empire: The Rise and Reign of Jeff Bezos.”
In March 2020, Open Markets testified to the Antitrust Subcommittee of the U.S. Senate about Amazon self-dealing. In April 2020, OMI sent this letter to the Antitrust Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives laying out how to address platform monopolists.
In July 2020, Open Markets published “Imagining a Democratic Amazon” in Democracy.
In August 2020, Open Markets will publish a cover article in Harper’s describing the extortionary and autocratic nature of the business models of Amazon, Google, and Facebook.
NEXT
Tomorrow, members of the committee have the first opportunity to expose Amazon’s decade of monopolistic behavior publicly. Concentrated control of commerce is a threat to democracy and the fundamental principles of American liberty. Amazon’s manipulative practices amount to nothing less than extortion of businesses of all sizes.