Amazon’s final talks with FTC unlikely to thwart antitrust lawsuit

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Known as a "last-rites meeting," these discussions could serve as Amazon's last chance to dodge an FTC lawsuit that Bloomberg has described as "the Big One."

But the "main allegation," Bloomberg reported in June, "is expected to be that Amazon leverages its power to reward online merchants that use its logistics services and punish those who don’t."

Sources told The Wall Street Journal that Amazon representatives will individually meet with the three FTC commissioners: Lina Khan, Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, and Alvaro Bedoya.

"It is as if Bezos charted the company’s growth by first drawing a map of antitrust laws, and then devising routes to smoothly bypass them," Khan wrote in the paper.

One way that Khan could sidestep Amazon's request to recuse her from the investigation would be to file the case in federal court rather than in the FTC's in-house tribunal.

Politico reported that's likely the direction that the FTC will go, as Khan then won't serve as a potentially biased prosecutor or judge in the case.

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4 comments

Hood news, Amazon! I know of at least a few members of SCOTUS that can be bought! Just keep appealing!
Nationalize it.
Its the courts im worried about though.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Known as a "last-rites meeting," these discussions could serve as Amazon's last chance to dodge an FTC lawsuit that Bloomberg has described as "the Big One."
But the "main allegation," Bloomberg reported in June, "is expected to be that Amazon leverages its power to reward online merchants that use its logistics services and punish those who don’t."
Sources told The Wall Street Journal that Amazon representatives will individually meet with the three FTC commissioners: Lina Khan, Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, and Alvaro Bedoya.
"It is as if Bezos charted the company’s growth by first drawing a map of antitrust laws, and then devising routes to smoothly bypass them," Khan wrote in the paper.
One way that Khan could sidestep Amazon's request to recuse her from the investigation would be to file the case in federal court rather than in the FTC's in-house tribunal.
Politico reported that's likely the direction that the FTC will go, as Khan then won't serve as a potentially biased prosecutor or judge in the case.
I'm a bot and I'm open source!