Lina Khan is a key architect of an aggressive attempt by Washington to rein in tech giants. Amazon may be next.

Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan will reportedly meet with representatives from Amazon (AMZN) next week in what could be the last face-to-face between the parties before the commission files an antitrust suit against the e-commerce giant.

  • echoplex21@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I appreciate Lina Khan at least trying even if it feels like a huge uphill battle . For example the Microsoft case; even though she lost, her stance on any large acquisition has ensured some concessions are made even before it goes to trial such as the COD and Cloud agreements.

    • dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net
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      1 year ago

      It’s being appealed, and the judge should be impeached for failing to recuse herself (the judge’s son works for Microsoft and has a lot of stock that will gain a lot of value if the deal does finally go through.)

    • ketseki@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I appreciate that they tried but God damn did the FTC shit the bed with that case. Their arguments were awful and they threw so much pointless shit at the wall that even the judge was getting fed up with their BS.

      • echoplex21@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Honestly there wasn’t much of a case to begin tbh. Even the CMA’s best resort was going to cloud and that turned out also to be BS as well.

      • glockenspiel@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The judge got fed up because her son works for Microsoft and thus the family is heavily invested–stock wise–in the company.

        The judge should’ve been forced to recuse. Microsoft also should’ve had its breakup orders enforced decades ago, instead of having it tossed out by a cabal of judges.

        Microsoft would be a totally different company if they didn’t have just Azure to subsidize all their own projects which operate at cost or loss to run competitors out.

    • MaybeItWorks@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      I’m not trying to be an asshole, but there’s no way she has the experience necessary for this and that hurts everyone. Tech is complicated and when you combine that with antitrust, a new comer is not going to do it.

      • Yendor@reddthat.com
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        1 year ago

        Have you actually read up on her, or are you just assuming that based on her age?

        https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/29/podcasts/the-daily/is-washington-finally-ready-to-take-on-big-tech.html

        The FTC has been run by old white guys for decades, and it’s been going backwards. Linda Khans essay on antitrust (as a postgrad student) has basically reframed the governments and legal professions approach to antitrust (although real change will be slow, with decades of bad precedent to undo). She went straight from being the top student at Yale Law, to being a professor at Columbia Law and simultaneously the counsel for the House committee on anti-trust.

  • 𝐘Ⓞz҉@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Guys, Call me a future predictor but I can predict that nothings going to happen coz amazon is a trillion dollar company and lina khan gets paid fuck all and FTC is a joke.

    • fibojoly@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Or, possibly, she gets promised a very lucrative position at Amazon in a few years if she toes the line…

    • CriticalMiss@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Doesn’t change the fact they still fear her, because before her the FTC chairman would bend backwards in order to promote whatever non consumer bullshit big tech needed done

    • Notyou@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      Yeah, but it’s a start. The journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step. The more we focus on it and talk about it. The more people will demand attention to it. That attention alone might help reign them in, even if a win for the FTC won’t come for a while.

      You know, unless we organize and make a 3rd political party that goes more for the people instead of their bosses. I just don’t think that will ever happen, so we got to slow walk it.

      • bobs_monkey@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Strange how someone with some youth on their side is up for a battle while the old and entrenched tend to enjoy the status quo.

  • guyrocket@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Scamazon need to be broken up in the worst way. IDK where to make the breaks, but some breaks need to be made.

    • dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net
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      1 year ago

      Let’s start with breaking AWS into somewhere between 3-12 different entities. Make Audible several different companies, and separate prime video from prime shipping.

    • Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Personally I don’t think any company should be involved in multiple business “entities”

      Where I live there is a telecom trying to also offer healthcare services. Seriously, wtf. At that point just create a new company.

    • LetMeEatCake@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The basic outline of where to split the company seems straightforward to me.

      AWS get split off first and foremost, that part is blatantly clear to me.
      From there, the retail webstore (what we generally think of as “Amazon”) gets split off from its broad category of services: music and movie streaming and everything in that category.
      After that, split anything that involves designing/repurposing other designs and selling a specific consumer product off. Kindle, Alexa, Roomba (if that purchase goes through), Amazon Basics, etc.

      I think there’s a decent amount of room to get more granular with the process, but I think that covers it as a basic outline.

    • theluddite@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Amazon has become our de facto national infrastructure for distributing goods. I say we recognize what is already reality and just nationalize it.