On an internet forum in August, merchants who sell products on Amazon’s marketplace began speculating about the prospect of a lawsuit being brought against the ecommerce giant.
There were “thousands of examples of abuses of sellers by Amazon,” one merchant alleged. Perhaps, the person added, it would be worth sellers collating their stories in support of a competition case that was rumoured to be in the works — a suggestion that prompted a flood of comments before the thread on the Amazon-hosted forum was closed by a moderator.
Weeks later, at the end of September, the US competition regulator and 17 states filed a sweeping lawsuit against Amazon, alleging that the online retailer illegally uses its monopoly power to overcharge consumers, hobble competitors and exploit the hundreds of thousands of sellers on its marketplace.