This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.

Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.

At some point, in the past 30-odd years, you may have contemplated saying no to Amazon. Maybe you were worried about the

brick-and-mortar stores you grew up with, or maybe you were upset about labor practices in the

warehouses or tactics described as union-busting. Or maybe it was just the spectacle of the

second richest person in the entire world wearing a cowboy

hat to space. Whatever the case, after having these thoughts, you probably went and clicked

add to cart anyway. It's Amazon. It's convenient. The prices are low. The selection is wide.

The shipping is so fast sometimes it's uncanny.

But what if that's wrong?

What if Amazon only seems like the best and singular option

because it's squeezed out all the other options?

The FTC's lawsuit alleges that Amazon is now a monopoly,

and it's effectively functioning as a gatekeeper,

as a key distribution channel that's connecting millions of consumers

and thousands of merchants that are dependent on Amazon to reach them.

That's Lena Khan, the chair of the Federal Trade Commission,

which has just filed a lawsuit against Amazon.

Khan is 34, but before she'd even finished law school,

she wrote an influential paper about how to use antitrust law against the company.

But what does it mean for us, for consumers,

if Amazon really is a monopoly?

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