Stacy Mitchell joined Teddy Downey on Second Request, the Capitol Forum’s podcast, to discuss ILSR’s new Amazon’s Toll Road report, which finds that Amazon is exploiting its position as a gatekeeper to impose steep and growing fees on third-party sellers.
There are three primary fees that Amazon charges, Stacy explains. Referral, advertising, and fulfillment fees — referral fees are mandatory while advertising and fulfillment are technically optional. “But the reality is that if you don’t buy those services from Amazon, you end up not making any sales on their site.” Sellers are finding that instead of showing up on the first and second page search results because of positive product reviews, they won’t show up at all if they don’t buy ads to be there.
Amazon is at center stage in the antitrust arena. Stronger antitrust enforcement has gained substantial public support and press in the past year. Small businesses themselves have raised their voices and become a part of the growing antimonopoly movement. To speak out, in itself, is a difficult task Stacy explains. “Third party sellers and bigger businesses fear retaliation from Amazon.”
Stacy argues that breaking up Amazon is a key solution to its monopoly power. “We need to focus on resolving the integration by splitting Amazon into several stand alone companies. Marketplace, Retail, Logistics, and AWS. The problem that we have right now is that Amazon is using its power over Marketplace sellers to compel them to use its logistics.”
It is time to act to save small independent businesses. Fighting corporate control is the first step. “Amazon is the number one threat facing entrepreneurs in many different industries. We are facing a collapse of small and independent businesses in manufacturing and in retail because of Amazon’s power.”
Read ILSR’s Amazon Toll Road Report here
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