Amazon faces a major lawsuit in its home market as the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and 17 state attorneys general on September 26 sued the e-commerce company for engaging in anticompetitive strategies to illegally maintain its monopoly power in online shopping. "Amazon’s actions allow it to stop rivals and sellers from lowering prices, degrade quality for shoppers, overcharge sellers, stifle innovation, and prevent rivals from fairly competing against Amazon," a press release from FTC stated. Amazon has published a blog post calling the lawsuit misguided. "If the FTC gets its way, the result would be fewer products to choose from, higher prices, slower deliveries for consumers, and reduced options for small businesses—the opposite of what antitrust law is designed to do," David Zapolsky, Senior Vice President, Global Public Policy & General Counsel at Amazon, said. The lawsuit alleges anticompetitive conduct by Amazon in two markets: the online superstore market that serves shoppers and the market for online marketplace services purchased by sellers. The alleged anticompetitive tactics engaged by Amazon include: Preventing sellers and other online retailers from offering lower prices: Amazon has in place "anti-discounting measures that punish sellers and deter other online retailers from offering prices lower than Amazon, keeping prices higher for products across the internet. For example, if Amazon discovers that a seller is offering lower-priced goods elsewhere, Amazon can bury discounting sellers so far down in Amazon’s search results that they become effectively invisible." Forcing sellers to use Amazon's fulfilment services: Amazon gives sellers Prime eligibility, "a…
