The government’s case to break up Amazon, explained

The Federal Trade Commission thinks the Everything Store is an illegal monopoly, and it’s suing the company to stop it — which could mean breaking up the company.

In its lawsuit filed on Tuesday, the antitrust agency, joined by 17 states, accuses Amazon of interlocking anti-competitive actions that, it says, have inflated prices for consumers, harmed third-party sellers in Amazon’s marketplace, and made it nearly impossible for other e-commerce platforms and retailers to compete. The complaint includes 20 charges, including monopoly maintenance of the online superstore market and the online marketplace services market, unfair methods of competition, and violations of various state antitrust laws.

It’s a significant milestone in the antitrust reform movement led by FTC Chair Lina Khan, which has zeroed in on Big Tech and the business practices of some of the biggest companies in the world. This is the first case filed under her leadership that takes on those practices and one of those companies. It just so happens that it’s the company she built her career on criticizing.

“These tactics enable Amazon to protect its monopoly power from competitive checks,” Khan said in a briefing with reporters. “And Amazon is now exploiting that monopoly power to harm its customers, both the tens of millions of families that shop on Amazon’s platform and the hundreds of thousands of sellers that use Amazon to reach them.”