Antitrust charges have been brought against Amazon by the European Union regulators. They say Amazon has been using its size to unfairly bully and harm smaller merchants that rely on them to reach their customers.
The regulators say Amazon takes data from sellers of products to customers and in turn makes similar products and sells them for lesser prices, thereby undercutting and pushing out the original seller of that product. Margrethe Vestager, the commission’s vice president for digital issues, said "We must ensure that dual role platforms with market power, such as Amazon, do not distort competition".
This charge has also been slapped on tech giants Apple, Google, and Facebook. In October, the Justice Department of the USA leveled antitrust charges against Google. These charges on all these tech giants are only so they don't become monopolies and distort markets for their sole benefits.
In time we would find out if the charges on all these companies change the course of our way of life.
4 comments:
It is very interesting to see how the European Union is responding to the rise of these monopolies. I recently have read a couple of articles about some European countries that have gone back on lockdown and how they had to ask certain big stores such as Carrefour and Decathlon in France for example, (the equivalent of U.S. Walmart or Dick Sporting Goods), to stop selling certain products so that it is fair for smaller businesses. While this approach might be effective to halt the harm being done to smaller companies during this pandemic, these regulations will need to be applied firmly in general so that competition persists in these markets.
I think its good that these giant companies are being held in check by government around the world because with out these checks these companies would easily become monopolies or take advantage of their customers.
It is interesting to see how these antitrust charges play out. Companies seem to push their limits until someone tries to stop them which is good to keep them in check. I feel like it is so easy for a tech company like Google even to just take over because they are just so big.
Hopefully this sets a precedent for how far big companies can push boundaries before they run into legal trouble. In todays day and age of technology its crazy to see how much ground these tech giants are allowed to take.
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