Microsoft is bigger than Google, Amazon and Facebook. But lawmakers treat it like an ally in antitrust battles

When Google announced in 2019 that it would acquire Fitbit for $2 billion, lawmakers didn’t hide their frustration.

“By attempting this deal at this moment, Google is signaling that it will continue to flex and expand its power despite this immense scrutiny,” Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., chairman of the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee, said in a statement the same day the deal was announced.

But more than 24 hours after Microsoft announced its plans to purchase Activision for nearly $70 billion, aggressive trustbusters in Congress were uncharacteristically quiet. Core sponsors of antitrust legislation targeting the tech industry, including Cicilline, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., did not immediately comment to The Washington Post on the deal.

The silence underscores how Microsoft has carved out a distinct reputation among policymakers, distancing itself from the political scrutiny embroiling its top competitors in Washington, D.C. As Apple, Facebook, Amazon and

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Amazon and Google deploy their armies to thwart antitrust bills

The antitrust bills’ supporters accuse the tech giants of spreading baseless fears and stoking small businesses’ anxieties to blunt the growing anti-monopoly momentum in Congress. But the effort shows that the companies’ networks of data centers, warehouses, business partnerships and legions of users have given Amazon and Google a huge number of potential allies in their showdown with Washington.

“I’m glad in this case Amazon is deploying people like me,” said Kristin Rae, the founder of Inspire Travel Luggage, a vendor that sells its wares mostly on Amazon. “Because maybe we are the ones who can get through to lawmakers and say, ‘Wow, my job or position or brand could be in danger.’”

Rae, who has appeared in Amazon blog posts and videos about the small businesses and female entrepreneurs who use its marketplace, said she is especially concerned about bills like one from Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Chuck

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Amazon has mostly avoided antitrust scrutiny, but that may change in 2022

Amazon.com Inc. has largely escaped the gaze of lawmakers in the antitrust battle, but that is changing rapidly and could lead to some challenges in 2022.

Congress and the Federal Trade Commission have Amazon in their collective crosshairs entering 2022. While new bills target Amazon’s online-sales practices, a longtime antagonist sits atop the FTC as it decides how to best keep the e-commerce leader in check.

A bill from U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, seemingly takes direct aim at Amazon
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and Apple Inc.
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The American Innovation and Choice Online Act would ban dominant online platforms from favoring their own products or services, a practice known as self-preferencing.

The legislation, which could greatly affect searches provided to users by Amazon and Alphabet Inc.’s Google
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would bar dominant platforms from discriminating among business users in a way

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DC legal professional basic targets Amazon’s initial-bash enterprise for antitrust

Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon and then CEO of Amazon Net Expert services, speaks at the WSJD Live meeting in Laguna Seaside, California, Oct 25, 2016.

Mike Blake | Reuters

District of Columbia Legal professional Basic Karl Racine expanded his antitrust criticism versus Amazon on Monday, concentrating on the company’s relationships with wholesale suppliers.

Racine sued Amazon in May well over allegations that the firm illegally taken care of monopoly power as a result of its pricing contracts with third-bash sellers. 

The amended grievance expands Racine’s preliminary allegations to incorporate what he claims are the anticompetitive outcomes of Amazon’s agreements with wholesalers known as very first-celebration sellers. The unique grievance centered on how Amazon’s contracts with 3rd-party sellers, or those who market on Amazon underneath their individual brand names, allegedly stifle competition. 

Much of Amazon’s dominance in e-commerce has appear from its third-bash market. That support is manufactured up of

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Amazon launches site to warn sellers about antitrust payments

An Amazon warehouse

Getty Visuals

Amazon on Friday stepped up its offensive from antitrust proposals in Congress by launching a internet site to talk with sellers about the legislation.

The website enables sellers to sign up to get additional facts from Amazon’s community plan team about the package deal of antitrust legislation, accepted in June by the Residence Judiciary Committee, which seeks to rein in Big Tech’s energy.

By signing up, sellers will also be provided chances to communicate directly with elected officials about the expenses, the internet site states.

“We glance ahead to trying to keep you educated as we get far more details about what this legislation could suggest for you and providing you the possibility to have your voice listened to,” in accordance to the web page. “We will also share methods we can function alongside one another to guarantee Amazon stays a good place for our

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