Amazon Anti-Competition Law in the International Political Economy

Abstract

In the last decade, information and communications technology (ICT) has grown very rapidly. One of the most notable developments in ICT is the emergence of online commerce. The online commerce scene has gotten very crowded, very rapidly, and thus raised the level of competition. In the midst of it all, Amazon has arisen as the titan of the industry. Many experts find the company"s business practices to be odd and anti-competitive in nature. It has been accused of predatory pricing and elimination of product competitors. In 2017, Yale Law student Lina M. Khan published an article in the Yale Law Journal on the matter. Inspired by the article, this paper seeks to look into Amazon"s anti-competition practices in international political economy settings. Adopting a nationalistic approach, this paper seeks to find answers to these two questions: (1) If Amazon"s practices and values have always been the same since its inception, then why is it only recently that Amazon"s anti-competition practices have drawn public attention? (2) Why do governments react only after anti-competition acts are conducted in their market instead of taking precautionary measures in advance? This paper asserts that the practice conducted by Amazon has surfaced and attracted the attention of the public due to the actions taken by certain governments to investigate. The precautionary measure is not taken by some governments due to the digital divide that exist between countries.