From New York Times, I'm Michael Loro, this is The Daily.

Last week, when the U.S. government filed a landmark antitrust lawsuit against Amazon,

it pointed to a set of familiar features that have made Amazon so beloved by consumers.

Today, my colleague, Karen Weiss, on why those beloved features may actually be illegal.

It's Monday, October 2nd.

Karen, now that the U.S. government has actually sued Amazon for monopolistic tactics,

we wanted to talk to you, somebody who has covered Amazon for years, about the very specific

ways that Amazon has allegedly broken the law. So, talk us through that.

Yeah, so the Federal Trade Commission looked at a lot of things,

but they said in the end, it boiled down to two tactics that are behind the scenes of things

that we all know. So, one is how we buy things on Amazon. When you click buy, the buy now button,

and then also prime shipping. That's super fast shipping. That is part of how things get to your

door so quickly. Right. What you just mentioned are basically the throbbing heart of my relationship

with Amazon. I assume everyone's relationship to Amazon. And you're saying those are at the center

of this federal action against Amazon. Exactly. And the government is saying there are these

very sophisticated mechanisms that let Amazon illegally maintain its monopoly. That's kind of

the core of their argument. That behind this thing is that we all see there's this grip of power

over not just the sellers on Amazon's website, but over the whole internet.

Okay. So, I want you to explain this behind the scenes, grip on the internet and consumers

and sellers that Amazon has developed through these two items you mentioned. And let's start with

the buy now button and how according to our government, that has been misused by Amazon.

Sure. So, the first thing you have to understand briefly is that most things we buy on Amazon

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