Summary Bullets:

• The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), along with 17 state attorneys, is suing Amazon for what it terms monopolistic practices for what it terms have “inflated prices, degrade quality, and stifle innovation for consumers and businesses.”

• Though the lawsuit does not cite Amazon’s size, but rather its market dominance and practices, it doesn’t require too much imagination to read between the lines and think the FTC wants Amazon split up, with the obvious potential spin-out business being Amazon Web Services (AWS).

After a lengthy investigation, the FTC and 17 state attorneys filed a lawsuit against Amazon claiming it’s the retail giant’s “illegal, exclusionary conduct makes it impossible for competitors to gain a foothold.” In a press release announcing the suit, the FTC goes on to call out specific practice as monopolistic and harmful to both businesses and consumers. The FTC specifically calls out Amazon’s search feature, which the agency says is “degrading the customer experience” by switching out “relevant, organic search results with paid advertisements.” The agency claims this hurts both customers frustrated with “junk ads” and sellers who are trying to promote their own products by limiting the return on their advertising investment.