No plans to ‘go after’ Amazon, Trump administration asserts

SAN FRANCISCO – The possibility that President Trump wanted to “go after” Amazon caused the retail giant to lose tens of millions of dollars in market value Wednesday, even after the White House downplayed any plans to take action.

But despite Amazon’s seemingly inexorable growth — including its build-up in groceries, entertainment and health care — there’s very little the president or the federal government could do under current antitrust practices. As for taxes: Amazon already collects state sales tax in all states that have them, though it could be vulnerable to any new tax efforts.

If indeed the President harbors illwill toward one of the world’s largest companies, there’s little he could do to hurt it, experts say. “The president can hate Amazon all he wants, but he has limited power to do much about it,” said Michael Pachter, managing director of equity research for Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles.

The furor arose after news website Axios published a story Wednesday, citing five unnamed sources who said Trump is considering whether to change Amazon’s tax treatment because of the impact the online giant has had on smaller retailers.

The White House rebuffed the report. Spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said no specific policies were on the table in regards to Amazon.

“The president has said many times before he is always looking to create a level playing field for all businesses, and this is no different,” she said.

According to the Axios story, Trump doesn’t believe Amazon pays its fair share of sales tax. This stance isn’t new. Last year, the president blasted the company for doing damage to “tax paying retailers.”

Shares of Amazon fell 4.3% Wednesday.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has said the White House favors an Internet sales tax. There have been efforts in Congress to force all e-commerce companies to collect state sales tax. But since Amazon already does that, those moves are more likely to hit smaller e-tailers. Amazon, and most other e-commerce companies, didn’t collect state sales taxes when they launched in the 1990s, using laws dating back as long as 50 years made for catalog retailers.

That allowed them to keep prices low and gain market share as online sales were just beginning. However, Amazon and other big e-commerce companies now routinely collect state sales taxes.

The one area where Amazon and others might be vulnerable is on local sales taxes, which most e-commerce companies don’t collect and which stores have complained puts them at a disadvantage.

Another beef Trump has long had with Amazon is over its size. Even during his campaign, he questioned Amazon’s treatment. During an interview in May 2016 with Fox News host Sean Hannity, Trump claimed Bezos has a big antitrust issue related to Amazon.

Probably the strongest antitrust case that could be made against Amazon is for price discrimination or predatory pricing against competitors, “but even those are thin,” said Sucharita Kodali, a senior retail analyst at consulting firm Forrester Research.

Jeff Bezos