Suspected Of Squeezing Other Retailers Amazon Was Investigated By The US FTC

August 5th, according to foreign media reports, the US Federal Trade Commission FTC has launched an antitrust investigation on Amazon, which suspects that Amazon's product sales cooperation agreements signed with Apple Corp before it may crowd out other retailers or merchants.

According to media reports, apple and Amazon reached an agreement in 2018 to sell Apple's latest products, including iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch, on Amazon. As part of the agreement, after January 4, 2019, third party sellers without Apple's authorization could not sell new or used Apple products and their Beats series headphones on Amazon.

Since then, the third party distributors who want to sell Apple products in Amazon must first apply for the qualification of Apple authorized dealers, and need to renew their sales qualifications with Amazon.

According to foreign media reports, Amazon's sale of Apple's official products can make many third party dealers, including refurbished dealers, unable to sell cheap Apple products on Amazon, such as laptop computers.

It is reported that FTC lawyers recently contacted an Amazon seller John Bumstead, who had previously sold MacBook in Amazon, and had to withdraw his Amazon products after the new policy was implemented.

John believes that a large number of low-cost refurbished or used Apple products are no longer available through Amazon, reducing the choice of consumers. Apple may argue that this will reduce the supply of counterfeit products to protect consumers. However, Apple has not made any formal comment on the agreement since its entry into force.

Warren, a US congressman, believes that Amazon and other companies have large-scale online trading platform, but at the same time sell their products on the platform, which has caused unfair competition for other service providers. The US Federal Trade Commission's investigation of Amazon is exactly a kind of monopoly that Warren is worried about.