The complaint
- Abuses dominant platform
- monopoly leveraging (vertical integration) aimed at profits in ancillary business (not fending off rival e-commerce platform)
- has user data, uses search to steer to Amazon products
- advertises on Google with same keywords driving up prices and getting higher ranking
- Trademark infringement
- decreases edge innovation (rather than driving up prices)
- unfair competition (Lanham Act)
Possible remedies
- Expand IP protection; problem:
- could harm innovation
- Expand antitrust enforcement
- structural relief/separation (define core and prohibit going outside); problems:
- how to define core
- no tangible consumer injury
- takes too long
- nondiscrimination regime; problems:
- only for merchants seeking access to Amazon (unlike Williams-Sonoma)
- complaint-driven process is expensive for small merchants
- Other protection
