news/AMZN/2023.02.03/U.S. antitrust agency preparing lawsuit against Amazon - WSJ.txt

Feb 3 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is
preparing a possible antitrust lawsuit against e-commerce giant
Amazon.com Inc, the Wall Street Journal reported on
Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.It could not be determined exactly which aspects of Amazon's
businesses the FTC would target and the timing of any case was
uncertain, according to the report.Amazon and the FTC declined to comment.The commission began probing Amazon during the Trump
administration. The company has been criticized for allegedly
favoring its own products and disfavoring outside sellers on its
platform.The FTC has been scrutinizing the bundling practices of the
company's Prime subscription service, the WSJ also reported.Amazon in December reached a settlement with the European
Union in three antitrust probes after it addressed the EU's
concerns over use of sellers' data, saving the company from a
fine of up to 10% of its global turnover.Outsiders got a small view into the relationship between the
agency and Amazon last August when the agency rejected an Amazon
bid to quash demands that both Chief Executive Andy Jassy and
Executive Chairman Jeff Bezos testify at investigative hearings.
Amazon had questioned what it called the agency's "burdensome"
requests in its investigation of the sign-up and cancellation
processes for its Prime program.The Justice Department and FTC have probes underway of all
four platforms. The Justice Department has sued Alphabet's
Google twice, once regarding its search business and a second
time on advertising technology. The FTC has sued Meta's
Facebook.The FTC has also lost a court ruling aimed at stopping a
deal that Meta undertook to buy VR company Within.
(Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; additional reporting by
Diane Bartz in Washington; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Josie
Kao)