WASHINGTON, DC — The National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW) issued the below statement following the introduction of the House’s bipartisan legislative agenda to hold unregulated monopolies accountable for anti-competitive conduct.
“Over the past two years, we heard concerns from an increasing number of small businesses that depend upon Amazon for access to markets, including NAW members. Over 60% of Americans start their search on Amazon when they want to buy something online. In order for small- and medium-sized businesses to compete and reach online consumers, they have little alternative but to sell on Amazon’s site. For many, Amazon is the only game in town,” said Blake Adami, NAW Vice President of Government Relations.
The Subcommittee’s bills address unfair acts by dominant e-commerce platforms like Amazon that undermine fair competition by leveraging their controlling position to the detriment of consumers and third-party suppliers, including millions of small businesses. Dominant platforms reap enormous and unfair advantages by using the third parties’ proprietary information (such as products sold and prices, quantities, and customer identities) to sell the platform’s own products. The Subcommittee found that by owning and managing the platform, including setting its rules and prices, Amazon plays both sides to advantage its own products over those of the platform’s third-party sellers.
Among the important provisions is prohibiting the dominant platform from using seller data and engaging in conflicts of interest. The bills seek to restore fair competition to the Business to Consumer (B2C) market and the Business-to-Business (B2B) market, where many NAW members compete. Dominant provider control and abuse is causing real harm to the highly competitive B2B system.
NAW applauds the bipartisan work of Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman Cicilline, Ranking Member Buck, Members of the Judiciary Committee, and staff to promote free and fair competition. We look forward to continuing to work together on this important effort.
To read the legislation, click HERE.
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