ABA Board Urges State Attorneys General to Investigate Amazon

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The American Booksellers Association’s Board of Directors has sent letters to the attorneys general of each state calling for an investigation into Amazon’s monopolistic and anticompetitive conduct. The Board’s letters are a follow-up to last month’s letters sent by ABA Director of Advocacy and Public Policy David Grogan.

In the latest batch of letters, Board members noted the attorneys generals’ antitrust investigations into other Big Tech companies and urged the them to commit to an investigation into Amazon, saying, “I can personally attest to Amazon’s monopoly in the book industry, and I warn that, without regulatory action, Amazon is on its way to becoming a full-blown monopoly in the technology industry.”

The letters also cite Prime Numbers: Amazon and American Communities, a study conducted by Civic Economics, to provide a contextual reference for Amazon’s impact on the retail industry, stating the number of displaced storefronts and the net job loss in each state.

ABA Board Members also offered their time to state attorneys general interested in learning more about Amazon’s effect on their businesses and the need for a timely investigation into the corporate giant.