Hi! Today's House Judiciary Hearing is a pretty big deal! Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai, and Mark Zuckerberg are going to be answering important questions about big tech and monopoly at 12 Eastern.

We'll tweet about it in this thread. https://judiciary.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=3113
Online Platforms and Market Power, Part 6: Examining the Dominance of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and...

https://judiciary.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=3113
The wonderful folks at @ilsr are using the hashtag #BigTechOnBlast.

Yesterday, they released an eye-opening report about Amazon's role as gatekeeper for online commerce. https://ilsr.org/amazons_tollbooth/
Amazon’s Monopoly Tollbooth

Amazon’s dominance of online retail means that hundreds of thousands of small businesses must rely on its site to reach customers. In this report, we find that Amazon is exploiting its gatekeeper po

https://ilsr.org/amazons_tollbooth/
Jeff Bezos's prepared testimony spins Amazon's success as an American entrepreneurial success story, and claims Amazon is now helping small entrepreneurs.

Amazon takes around 30% of each marketplace sale.

#BigTechOnBlast

https://docs.house.gov/meetings/JU/JU05/20200729/110883/HHRG-116-JU05-Wstate-BezosJ-20200729.pdf
In his statement, Bezos says he had to fight to raise a million dollars to start Amazon. If he were playing by Amazon's small business rules, he would've had to raise $300,000 more just for the right to operate.

#BigTechOnBlast

https://docs.house.gov/meetings/JU/JU05/20200729/110883/HHRG-116-JU05-Wstate-BezosJ-20200729.pdf
Like any statement from Amazon ever, Bezos's prepared testimony talks a lot about "customer obsession."

Remember that the direct consequence of "customer obsession" is "dangerous and grueling conditions for workers."

#BigTechOnBlast https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/11/amazon-warehouse-reports-show-worker-injuries/602530/
Ruthless Quotas at Amazon Are Maiming Employees

Speedy robots. Constant surveillance. Ruthless quotas. A new investigation into why the injury rate for Amazon’s warehouse workers is sky-high.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/11/amazon-warehouse-reports-show-worker-injuries/602530/
Big tech consolidation is dangerous because Americans can't choose an alternative

"American democracy has always been at war against monopoly power"

-opening statement by @davidcicilline

#BigTechOnBlast
Opening statement @RepJerryNadler says today's big tech reminds him of monopoly gatekeeping by railroads, a case of new technology requiring new regulatory action by Congress

#BigTechOnBlast
One strategy Amazon uses in the face of accusations that they're too big is to downplay their massive scale. On that note, Bezos begins his testimony by emphasizing his and Amazon's humble beginnings. Nice story, but this company is now valued over $1 trillion.

#BigTechOnBlast
Bezos makes the claim that all Amazon employees make $15 an hour, but this ignores the armies of third-party contractors and temp workers who also work the warehouses and drive the vans. Third-party contractors aren't guaranteed the $15/hr rate and benefits.

#BigTechOnBlast
An hour in and no questions for Jeff Bezos. Why do you think?

#BigTechOnBlast
First question for Bezos is from @PramilaJayapal about using third-party data to build their own competing products. Bezos cannot confirm their policy prohibiting this has been 100% upheld.

#BigTechOnBlast
Bezos does not deny that Amazon employees used third-party data to build competing products

@PramilaJayapal, fresh off grilling Barr yesterday, is grilling Bezos today

#BigTechOnBlast
The main thrust of @RepJayapal's questioning is a key issue with Amazon's unfairness:

Amazon sets the rules for participating in its platform, and it also competes on that platform, giving it an unfair advantage over the small businesses using Amazon Marketplace

#BigTechOnBlast
We’re just a small bookstore in the middle of the country but it didn’t seem like Bezos did super great in his first questioning in front of Congress

#BigTechOnBlast

https://twitter.com/stacyfmitchell/status/1288550589501186048?s=21 https://twitter.com/stacyfmitchell/status/1288550589501186048
Now @marygayscanlon has questions for Bezos about the infamous http://diapers.com  acquisition, an early bit of Amazon anticompetitive history

https://slate.com/technology/2013/10/amazon-book-how-jeff-bezos-went-thermonuclear-on-diapers-com.html

#BigTechOnBlast
How Amazon Went Thermonuclear on Diapers.com

Amazon tracks its competitors extremely closely. So when an upstart called Diapers.com began catching on with parents by allowing them to easily...

http://diapers.com
Scanlon says Amazon bled $200 million in one month to undercut http://Diapers.com  prices

When http://Diapers.com  began struggling, Amazon bought it, then raised prices.

Folks, that's called predatory pricing. Bezos calls it a "traditional idea"

#BigTechOnBlast
Bezos parlays concerns about predatory pricing back to, you guessed it, customer obsession. He looks like he's smirking as he claims not to remember http://diapers.com .

#BigTechOnBlast
Now @RepLucyMcBath claims Amazon Marketplace sellers call Amazon a "Bully," and they react with "fear and panic." She shares first-hand testimony from a seller whose textbook sales were throttled by Amazon. No explanation from Amazon about the throttling.

#BigTechOnBlast
Bezos acts surprised by Marketplace sellers fearing retribution and punishment from Amazon, though it's a well-documented phenomenon.

Bezos asks for seller's contact info from @RepLucyMcBath. McBath says Bezos is missing the point.

#BigTechOnBlast
Bezos says third-party selling is a growing segment on Amazon, but of course, @ilsr found third-party selling fees are growing twice as fast.

#BigTechOnBlast
Questioning from @RepLucyMcBath concludes powerfully with a plea from the throttled bookseller directly to Bezos

#BigTechOnBlast
Round 1 concludes with @davidcicilline asking if third party sellers are "partners" or "competitiors"

Bezos documents have called third party sellers "internal competitors," so think about that when they promise to be friends to small businesses.

#BigTechOnBlast
Marketplace Seller sources in @davidcicilline's investigation re: Amazon:

"They've never been a great partner but you have to work with them"

"We're stuck. We don't have any choice but to sell through Amazon."

#BigTechOnBlast
A 3-party seller @davidcicilline talked to called selling on Amazon "for lack of a better term, Amazon heroin" because getting the paychecks feels good but Amazon is "ultimately going to be your downfall."

Bezos, of course, talks about customer obsession.

#BigTechOnBlast
Subcommittee Chair Rep @davidcicilline: "The evidence we've collected shows that Amazon is only interested in exploiting its monopoly power over the ecommerce marketplace to further expand and protect its power...

#BigTechOnBlast
Subcommittee chair @davidcicilline, cont'd: "...This investigation makes it clear that Amazon's dual role as a platform operator and competing seller on that platform is fundamentally anticompetitive and congress must take action."

#BigTechOnBlast

allow us a GIF
Rep @RepKenBuck brings up PopSocket's attempts to prevent counterfeit versions of its product from showing up on Amazon, only successful when PopSockets agreed to a $2 b̶r̶i̶b̶e̶ marketing contract with Amazon

#BigTechOnBlast
The issue of counterfeit goods on Amazon is a big deal, and the @WSJ found that Amazon is basically unable/unwilling to control it.

#BigTechOnBlast https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-has-ceded-control-of-its-site-the-result-thousands-of-banned-unsafe-or-mislabeled-products-11566564990
Amazon Has Ceded Control of Its Site. The Result: Thousands of Banned, Unsafe or Mislabeled Products

Just like other tech companies that have struggled to tackle misinformation on their platforms, Amazon has proven unable or unwilling to effectively police third-party sellers on its site. A Wall...

https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-has-ceded-control-of-its-site-the-result-thousands-of-banned-unsafe-or-mislabeled-products-11566564990
Because we make our living doing things other than stealing proprietary data from our "partners," we have to pause this live-tweet and go deliver books.

Resist Amazon. Long Live small businesses. Follow along with #BigTechOnBlast for more updates.
Here’s one more interesting thing from the #BigTechOnBlast hearing that happened after we stopped watching: according to @ddayen, @RepMGS says Amazon named its own products “essential” but not competitors during the initial pandemic lockdown. https://twitter.com/ddayen/status/1288599060660674561
This is the problem with serving as a platform and competitor on that platform: Amazon can change the rules on the fly and there’s nothing to be done by the businesses that rely on Amazon for the platform. Still, they have nowhere else to feasibly make money selling online.
You can follow @ravenbookstore.
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