The Biden era

With a boldness that it has successfully used against corporate rivals, Anti-Competition Issues and partners, Amazon has fashioned itself into a tech-and-retail juggernaut. It has taken a similar strategy in Washington, which has sparked outrage among officials, regulators, and lawmakers from both parties. The corporation has had numerous run-ins with government agencies and resisted lawmakers investigating it.

According to current and former Amazon public-policy personnel, the confrontational campaign, led from Seattle, has offended many of the company’s executives in Washington, resulting in a number of departures from the company’s D.C. offices.

Legislation is being proposed in Congress that may restructure Amazon or force the dissolution of some of its businesses—proposals that the firm claims are wrong and would harm Amazon’s customers and vendors. While continuing its antitrust investigation into Amazon, the FTC is examining whether to dispute the company’s proposed $6.5 billion acquisition of the MGM film and television studio.

Trump’s scathing remarks


The victory of Donald Trump in 2016 put an Amazon opponent in the White House. Mr Trump said as a candidate that Amazon had a “major antitrust problem.” Because Mr Bezos and Amazon-owned the Washington Post at the time, he repeatedly chastised them as president.

Amazon wasn’t doing much better when it came to dealings with Congress. The Antitrust Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee launched a bipartisan inquiry of Amazon, Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google, and Facebook (formerly Meta Platforms Inc.) in June 2019 to see if they have monopoly power. Each corporation supplied papers and communications over the course of 16 months, made executives accessible for testimony, and addressed questions about their businesses in various Corporate/Industrial News. The subcommittee asked the CEOs of Apple, Alphabet, and Facebook to testify, and they agreed.

The Wall Street Journal revealed in April 2020 that Amazon’s private-label team violated the company’s declared regulations by using internal seller data to build product ideas for its own product line. Congress sent Amazon a letter accusing one of its lawyers of lying to Congress about such practises during previous testimony. According to some of the people involved in the subcommittee’s probe, Amazon continued to fight to have Mr Bezos testify, upsetting the committee even more. Amazon has insisted that it did not deceive Congress.

What is Watering the flowers?


According to current and former personnel, the public-policy team’s tactic is nicknamed “watering the flowers.” To guarantee that everyone crucial to Amazon’s agenda is getting enough attention, an internal database analyses staff interactions with policymakers, maintaining notes on meetings and talking points.

Amazon’s perceived lack of transparency has been a source of anger in Congress. Amazon launched an internal probe after the Journal published a storey on its private-label crew. According to people familiar with the decision, it chose to employ an outside law firm for the probe because of the heavy regulatory scrutiny. Amazon had previously undertaken internal audits of this business line, but this time enlisted the help of law firm K&L Gates LLP.

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