Amazon has always been painted as the villain, but the company continues to deny it. As the FTC moved forward with the antitrust lawsuit against the retail giant, details emerge proving that Amazon might actually be the big evil corporation everyone claims it to be.
Amazon's Treatment of Sellers
Merchants on Amazon continue to complain about the policies in the online retail shop, claiming that the fees are taking too much out of their profits. Well, it looks like the company knows about it, and they don't really care much about how it affects their sellers.
An unredacted document surfaced from the antitrust lawsuit, which revealed that an executive mentioned how merchants "live in constant fear" of penalties if they don't follow Amazon's pricing policies. Many expressed that the fees are too great for the sellers in the platform.
Amazon has increased prices by more than $1 billion between 2016 to 2018 through the company's secret algorithms called "Project Nessie," as reported by Engadget. Its "take rate" from fulfilled orders have increased from 27.6% to 39.5% in four years as well.
The Federal Trade Commission also found that Amazon is requiring sellers to have the lowest prices online. Not doing so would lead to the sellers risking consequences. This is among the several allegations that the agency is probing into.
However, this instance where the retail giant is forcing sellers to put up the lowest price is deemed illegal. The FTC alleged that Amazon monitors its sellers and punishes them if their prices are lower than in other shops, which is a violation of antitrust laws.
Ultimately, all accusations point to the company putting profit first and doing all they can to remain the top retailer online, even if its sellers suffer for it. Reports say that small business are hurting and even going bankrupt because of these practices.
What's worse is that Amazon is not too kind with customers as well. Search results are now riddled with more ads, which ad executives admitted were unimportant and unrelated to initials searches, and caused "harm to customers" as with the experience on Amazon.
FTC alleges that "Mr. Bezos directly ordered his advertising team to continue to increase the number of advertisements on Amazon by allowing more irrelevant advertisements, because the revenue generated by advertisements eclipsed the revenue lost by degrading consumers' shopping experience."
Even Amazon Workers Aren't Safe
The FTC alleges that sellers are treated unfairly, but based on several reports, it's not just them who suffer from Amazon's policies and practices. The company's workers, even the contracted ones, have been complaining about the retail giant for years.
Back in 2021, warehouse workers from Oklahoma claimed that Amazon was underpaying them. Tara Jones, a mom with a baby said that her salary was $90 short after months of hard work. This led to the investigation of Amazon providing wages to workers.
It was found that for at least a year and a half, including times of record profit, "Amazon had been shortchanging new parents, patients dealing with medical crises, and other vulnerable workers on leave, according to a confidential report on the findings," Forbes reports.
