Biden FTC Reportedly Looked To Bolster Antitrust Case Against Amazon With Help From Chinese E-Commerce Giant
The Biden Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reportedly communicated with a major Chinese e-commerce company about Amazon’s pricing policies that are related to the FTC’s case against Amazon, according to The Information…
The Biden Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reportedly communicated with a major Chinese e-commerce company about Amazon’s pricing policies that are related to the FTC’s case against Amazon, according to The Information, citing two people familiar with the matter.
FTC personnel reportedly sent a letter to Temu and also spoke with representatives of the company between December 2024 and Inauguration Day, according to The Information and Daniel J. Gilman, a former FTC attorney advisor and current senior scholar for the International Center for Law and Economics. Amazon’s pricing practices are at the center of a Biden FTC antitrust case against the company, which alleges Amazon pricing practices limit consumer choice to the disadvantage of competitors, and that company policy disadvantages third-party sellers using their infrastructure.
“The internet is now abuzz with reports of even more curious behavior from the commission—namely, that the FTC has been building its antitrust case against Amazon on the strength of testimony from Temu, a Chinese online marketplace that connects customers directly with manufacturers in China and that competes directly with Amazon,” Gilman wrote on Tuesday in his piece for Truth on the Market. “It’s a dubious case, and new FTC leadership ought to take a good hard look at the details, and at the question of whether this specific antitrust case is a sensible way to deploy FTC resources.”