Lina Khan deals with Amazon, Facebook and Google

This law professor deals with Amazon, Facebook & Co..

Amazon and Facebook are among the largest and most powerful companies in history. But in the United States looms a legal reform that wants to break their authority. The reform also changes shopping in Switzerland.

niklaus vontobel / ch media

In the United States of America Imminent battle. When this ends, the rules will be in effect, which American Internet companies will be subject to over the next few decades. These rules also apply to everyday life in Switzerland. When you go to the online mega store Amazon Shopping for batteries or diapers.

Final preparations for this battle were made in June. our president Joe Biden A brilliant critic put Amazon in an influential position. Lina Khan will chair the Federal Trade Commission’s Competition Authority. The 32-year-old law professor became famous with her analyzing “The Amazon Antitrust Paradox”.

In doing so, she helped awaken American antitrust policy, which had previously been cloudless for twenty years. Amazon owes its rise to “the commerce giant of the 21st century” to questionable strategies, says Khan. According to her, such strategies should be banned. As a solution, Khan advised splitting Amazon.

Khan’s appointment was the second coup. The first was the introduction of five bills in the House of Representatives, all aimed at reorganizing the tech giants. With them, the antitrust law of the Internet age will be rebuilt, and it will be the biggest update in decades

Lobbyist armies enter the fray

Democratic and Republican politicians are behind the renewal. As Lina Khan advised them. She will enforce these laws as the new head of the US Competition Authority. It will indeed be a new era dawning for internet giants like Amazon and Facebook social networking site. But before that, their ultra-wealthy bosses Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg will have whole armies of lobbyists fighting a defensive battle.

“We are fighting some of the most powerful companies that have ever existed in history,” David Cicilline says of the bills. In the House of Representatives, he chairs the committee responsible for antitrust law. Technological monopolies have a lot of power. “They can use it to pick winners and losers, and they can destroy small businesses.”

In this sentence by Cecline, the detour is shown in how tech giants are viewed from the perspective of competition. In the ancient perspective, there was nothing wrong with them. Because the only thing that was looked at was what they did to the consumer. Everything was permitted as long as they did not harm him. So don’t ask him about exorbitant prices or let him choose freely.

On the other hand, Khan and her like-minded experts say, yes, there is a problem. And every consumer can see what Khan means when they shop for batteries on Amazon. If you do, you will face Amazon in two forms. Amazon operates the world’s largest online store, and Amazon also sells batteries under the “Amazon Basics” brand. The new competition policy states that this dual role is not possible.

This wasn’t Biden’s worst advice

As a store owner, Amazon does a lot of things to give preference to Amazon, the battery seller, says Cicline. The impression arose that Amazon, the store operator, fairly compares all batteries and comes to the conclusion: Amazon, the seller of batteries, makes the best offer. “This is simply not true.”

Duracell or Varta will lose. You can’t just switch online stores either. Amazon is very big and powerful today in global trade for that. Without this sales channel, Varta or Duracell would have no survival. So Amazon must be divided. Amazon, the store operator, is no longer allowed to offer its own products.

A turning point is imminent in dealing with the tech giants. This also relates to Biden’s election as president. under his predecessor Donald Trump I slack off competition politics as it did under Barack Obama and George Bush. On the other hand, Biden showed himself in Campaign combative. He said at the time that the country’s growing monopoly was threatening American values. He adds in his vocabulary with a Christian touch: “One of the greatest sins is the misuse of power.”

Biden, the chiefs of tech companies, said when he once met them, they were “very smug.” Their boss told him they were the economic engine of America. But, according to Biden: “You have fewer employees on the payroll than GM fired last quarter.”