The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is reportedly planning to take legal action against Amazon.com's core online marketplace for rewarding online merchants that use its logistics services and penalizing companies that find other solutions.
The potential suit adds to the agency's latest action against Amazon in recent weeks. FTC boss Lina Khan's office has been working on the complaint for several months and finalizing key details, like where to file the suit, Bloomberg reported, citing documents and people familiar with the matter.
The agency's antitrust case targeting Amazon's online marketplace has been in the works for a long time, according to the report. Amazon got the FTC notice for initial investigation in June 2019, Bloomberg reported, citing documents.
The FTC would not comment on the matter. Amazon declined to comment.
The latest reported move from the U.S. regulator comes after filing a complaint in a federal court last week accusing Amazon of underhanded practices like "coercive or deceptive user-interface designs" known as "dark patterns" to keep customers enrolled in its Prime program.
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The FTC also claims that Amazon intentionally complicated the process for canceling Prime subscriptions, exerting great effort to stop consumers from ending their payments.
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Amazon rejected those allegations in a statement to FOX Business.
"The FTC’s claims are false on the facts and the law. The truth is that customers love Prime, and by design we make it clear and simple for customers to both sign up for or cancel their Prime membership. As with all our products and services, we continually listen to customer feedback and look for ways to improve the customer experience, and we look forward to the facts becoming clear as this case plays out," an Amazon spokesperson told FOX Business.
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"We also find it concerning that the FTC announced this lawsuit without notice to us, in the midst of our discussions with FTC staff members to ensure they understand the facts, context, and legal issues, and before we were able to have a dialog with the Commissioners themselves before they filed a lawsuit. While the absence of that normal course engagement is extremely disappointing, we look forward to proving our case in court," the spokesperson added.
Meanwhile, the FTC is already investigating Amazon's $1.7 billion deal for "Roomba" vacuum maker iRobot. The probe hopes to uncover how the Amazon warehousing and delivery service impacted third-party sellers’ product placements on its online market.
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FOX Business' Timothy Nerozzi and Reuters contributed to this report.
