Wednesday, April 7th, 2021
Small US companies are rehearsing insurrection
United in the fight against Amazon
No competition and access to unlimited resources: A coalition of small companies in the USA is declaring war on the monopoly of the world’s largest online retailer, Amazon. The discontent is not new, but the corona pandemic is giving critics a new boost.
A number of smaller US companies are storming the dominant position of corporations like Amazon and are calling for them to be broken up and strict regulation. Associations from the book trade and food industry as well as regional and local companies started a campaign in the USA. On their website, they stated that their goal was “to prevent technology monopolies like Amazon from dominating the market”.
The displeasure of smaller companies against the technology giants is not new, but has recently received a significant boost from the consequences of the corona pandemic. Because of closed shops and lockdowns worldwide, business shifted even more to the Internet. Amazon’s sales increased by 38 percent to around $ 386 billion last year, and profits doubled year-on-year to more than $ 21 billion.
The “Small Business Rising” coalition includes the Association of Independent Bookstores, the National Food Association and associations of local and regional companies. Together they represent over 60,000 US companies. The group claims to support a recent report by the US Congress that highlights the market power of technology companies and calls for stricter antitrust rules and laws to make it easier for certain companies to break up. The restoration of competitive markets will enable US citizens to “build successful companies and a more prosperous, sustainable and innovative economy,” said the companies in the campaign, which officially started yesterday. Amazon mention them explicitly – the group holds the online trade with fees and its data usage “in a stranglehold”, and that is one of the greatest dangers for independent companies.
Amazon has grown “bigger and bigger” undisturbed
Amazon defended itself against the allegation. Last year, the group offered small and medium-sized companies the opportunity to generate “hundreds of billions of dollars in sales” via its platforms. Their sales developed faster than those of the Amazon products, explained the group. Danny Caine, owner of an independent bookstore in Lawrence, Kansas, sums up Amazon’s market power as follows: “You set the rules and play the game at the same time.” He is hoping for the new US President Joe Biden, who wants to curb the power of technology companies more. He advocates, for example, that Biden has put lawyer Lina Khan at the head of the US consumer protection agency, a well-known critic of the so-called GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon).
Gina Schaefer, who runs 13 hardware stores in Washington DC, complains that Amazon has been able to get “bigger and bigger” undisturbed over the past two decades – it started with tax breaks. The group also has access to an “insane mass of data”. Without regulation, Amazon will become stronger and stronger, says Schaefer – “because they have no competition and access to unlimited resources”.
.