The Everything Monopoly: Inside the FTC's Landmark Antitrust Case Against Amazon

In September 2023, the Federal Trade Commission and 17 state attorneys general filed the most ambitious antitrust case against a technology company since the Justice Department's landmark action against Microsoft in the 1990s. The target: Amazon. The allegation: that the company has illegally maintained monopoly power in online retail and marketplace services through a web of anticompetitive practices that harm consumers, sellers, and competition alike. As the case moves through federal court in the Western District of Washington, its outcome could reshape not just Amazon but the entire digital economy. OPV has been tracking the proceedings and analyzing the evidence to understand what is at stake.

The Architecture of Alleged Monopoly

The FTC's complaint paints a picture of a company that has used its dominant market position to construct an ecosystem from which neither consumers nor sellers can practically escape. The case centers on several interrelated allegations. First, Amazon's anti-discounting practices: the company allegedly punishes sellers who offer lower prices on competing platforms by suppressing their products in search results and removing them from the Buy Box. This practice, the FTC argues, inflates prices across the entire e-commerce landscape because sellers must price their products high enough on other platforms to avoid Amazon's penalties. The irony is stark — Amazon, which built its brand on low prices, is accused of systematically keeping prices higher than they would be in a competitive market.

Second, the FTC alleges that Amazon coerces sellers into using Fulfillment by Amazon and Amazon's advertising services by making these effectively mandatory for marketplace success. Sellers who do not use FBA face severe disadvantages in search ranking, Buy Box placement, and Prime badge eligibility. The result is a system where sellers must pay Amazon an ever-growing stack of fees — now averaging over 50% of a product's sale price, according to the FTC — to maintain visibility on the platform. These fees are ultimately passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices, contradicting Amazon's public image as a champion of affordability.

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Discovery Reveals Internal Tensions

Perhaps the most revealing aspect of the case is what has emerged through discovery. Internal communications show that Amazon executives were aware that their practices raised antitrust concerns but chose to proceed anyway. In one exchange, a senior executive acknowledged that Amazon's anti-discounting policy was "probably not defensible" in an antitrust context but recommended maintaining it because the competitive benefits outweighed the legal risk. Other documents reveal debates within Amazon about whether the company's private-label strategy — using marketplace data to develop competing products — crossed legal lines, with some executives advocating for more restraint and others pushing for aggressive expansion. Amazon has fought vigorously to keep many of these documents sealed, arguing they contain trade secrets.

The Road Ahead

The case faces a long and uncertain path. Amazon has the resources to mount an exhaustive legal defense, and the company's lawyers have already succeeded in narrowing certain aspects of the FTC's claims. Legal experts are divided on the likely outcome: antitrust law has historically struggled with technology platforms that offer free or low-cost services to consumers, and Amazon will argue that its practices benefit consumers even if they disadvantage competitors. The FTC, for its part, is advancing a theory that monopoly power can harm consumers through higher prices that are less visible because they are embedded in seller fees rather than displayed at checkout. If successful, this theory could establish important precedent for regulating platform monopolies across the tech industry. Whether the case results in meaningful structural change or a negotiated settlement that preserves Amazon's fundamental business model will likely depend on judicial willingness to apply century-old antitrust principles to the defining commercial platform of the twenty-first century.

What Consumers and Sellers Should Watch

For the two million third-party sellers who depend on Amazon's marketplace and the hundreds of millions of consumers who shop there, the stakes could not be higher. A ruling that forces Amazon to decouple its marketplace from its retail operations could create genuine competition for the Buy Box and allow sellers to price products independently across platforms. A ruling that curbs mandatory FBA enrollment could reduce seller fees and, by extension, consumer prices. Conversely, if Amazon prevails, the company's position will be strengthened, and its practices will carry implicit judicial endorsement. Either way, the FTC v. Amazon case will define the boundaries of platform power for a generation. The proceedings continue, and OPV will be reporting on every development.