this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2023
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They’re suing Amazon for punishing sellers who don’t use Amazon fulfillment services. It’s a good thing but hardly “the big one.” They aren’t breaking them up, it’s only the big one in the sense that this is the biggest they’ll ever be brave enough to do.
The state of the FTC is so fucking sad.
This isn't entirely the fault of the FTC, much of the underlying problems are because of the courts.
The FTC under Biden has been going after many different industries, from aviation to publishing, while the DoJ has been trying to stop mergers in fields such as healthcare and food. Both the FTC and DoJ have lost many cases in the courts in recent years. For example, the DoJ went after chicken producers for price fixing, but the jury ruled that they were innocent. Both the DoJ and the FTC lost over half a dozen cases just last year.^[1]
It's become pretty common for companies to prepare for litigation, they no longer believe that cooperating with antitrust agencies to negotiate a settlement is feasible under the current administration.
The current administration is litigating most mergers, and has had some success. For example the DoJ successfully stopped both Lockheed Martin and NVIDIA from buying competitors while the FTC blocked healtchare company mergers in some states.
But now the Supreme Court has passed a decision that would allow companies to shop for judges so that they can challenge the constitutional authority of federal regulators like the FTC and EPA.^[2]
Reuters - U.S. keeps losing antitrust court battles but few expect pullback
Bloomberg Law - Federal Agencies Face Constitutional Fights After High Court Loss
The FTC can only enforce the laws that congress pass. At least the new chair isn’t afraid to make the most of the laws they do have:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/29/podcasts/the-daily/is-washington-finally-ready-to-take-on-big-tech.html?smid=url-share