Welcome to the Tech Meam Right Home for Wednesday, September 27th, 2023.

I'm Brian McCullough today.

The big FTC-led lawsuit against Amazon is live. Is Johnny Ive working with

open AI to create an AI hardware product? Open AI might soon be 3Xing its

private valuation. What the writers won from Hollywood, and what it's actually like

to ride in the only street legal level 3 autonomous car.

Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. And so it begins.

The Federal Trade Commission and 17 U.S. states have sued Amazon for allegedly using monopoly

power to raise its prices, force sellers to pay fulfillment and

ad fees, and harm its rivals.

Quoting CMBC.

The agency laid out a two-pronged strategy by which Amazon which Amazon quote unlawfully maintains its monopoly power.

It pointed to so-called anti- discounting measures the company uses to punish sellers and

deter other online retailers from offering lower more competitive prices than Amazon,

which translates to keeping prices higher for products across the internet, the FTC said.

Amazon also, quote, effectively requires that sellers use its, quote, costly fulfillment

services in order to obtain the vaunted Prime badge for their products, the FTC said,

which in turn makes it more expensive to do business on the platform.

Sellers are paying one out of every two dollars to Amazon.

FTC Chair Lena Khan told reporters at a briefing Tuesday.

The FTC and states alleged that Amazon forces sellers to pay expensive fulfillment and advertising

fees to market their goods on the site while facing no other choice, quote, but to rely on Amazon to stay in business.

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