Organizations representing small businesses in the United States launched a campaign on Tuesday to demand tougher anti-monopoly laws, including to end Amazon’s omnipotence in online commerce.
• Read also: Amazon illegally fired female activists
• Read also: Amazon workers forced to urinate in bottles
Entitled “Small Business Rising”, the coalition calls on regulators to take strong action to combat the anti-competitive practices of American industrial giants.
“We urge politicians to break the power of monopolies and preserve our right to compete and serve the needs of our communities,” the group writes on its website.
Its members want to “prevent tech monopolies like Amazon from controlling the online market by dismantling and regulating them.” “
“Amazon’s stranglehold on online commerce is one of the main threats facing independent businesses,” reads the “Small Business Rising” site.
The American Association of Booksellers, the National Association of Grocers and the North American Association of Hardware Stores are part of this new coalition.
Several parliamentary groups and federal regulatory agencies are looking into the domination of entire sections by the Gafa (Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple), whose influence has grown during the pandemic.
Last October, a working group of the House of Representatives’ antitrust sub-committee published a file accusing the Gafa of monopolies and abuse of a dominant position in their respective sectors.
“Small Business Rising” says it approves the conclusions of this parliamentary work which has shown that Amazon “asks for exorbitant commissions, imposes stifling conditions and extracts data from large stocks of manufacturers and independent traders for use on its platform. “
US President Joe Biden has announced his intention to tighten the screws against the tech giants by appointing the US competition authority (FTC) to lawyer Lina Khan, a famous slayer of the Gafa.
Mr Biden also called on Tim Wu, an advocate for strict anti-concentration laws, to join the prestigious National Economic Council (NEC)
Amazon did not immediately react to the formation of this new coalition.