Amazon should be broken up, small merchant coalition says
A new coalition of small business organizations is urging policymakers to break up Amazon.com Inc.
Small Business Rising, which represents grocers, hardware stores, pharmacies and bookstores, on Tuesday laid out a set of goals aimed at reinvigorating U.S. antitrust enforcement, including a call to separate Amazon’s own retail business from the marketplace that hosts third-party sellers.
Convened in part by the Institute for Local SelfReliance, a small-business advocacy group and a longtime critic of Amazon’s market power, the coalition is likely to ramp up the pressure on the world’s largest web retailer, which has thrived during the pandemic as home-bound shoppers stormed online. Members include the American Booksellers Association, the Alliance for Pharmacy Compounding and the National Grocers Association, along with regional groups of small merchants.
“Small businesses are in crisis,” said Stacy Mitchell, the ILSR’s co-director. She said the pandemic-fueled economic turmoil and the commanding presence of dominant firms like Amazon helped inform the coalition’s goals. “As one bookseller said to me, ‘It says Covid on the death certificate, but the underlying condition was Amazon.’”
The group also is calling for changes to antitrust laws that would empower regulators to stamp out anti-competitive tactics, as well as stricter review of mergers among big industry players.
Policymakers around the world have scrutinized Amazon’s practice of competing with the independent sellers who now account for most sales on its web store. Critics say Amazon treats sellers as disposable and beholden to its fees and other demands. The company also has been accused of using seller data to inform the design of its own products.
Amazon’s conduct and seller critiques featured prominently in a Congressional antitrust committee report last year that found the company wielded monopoly power over small merchants.
Amid rising pressure from small business activists and politicians, Amazon has in recent years sought to portray itself as a friend to small businesses, pitching stories of successful sellers in ad campaigns.
Gina Schaefer, who owns 13 hardware stores in the Washington area that are affiliated with Ace Hardware Corp., said she hears from suppliers regularly who feel pressured to sell on Amazon.
“A couple of them have really feared going out of business,” said Schaefer, who signed onto the coalition. “I just need the folks on the Hill to realize, we need help leveling the playing field.