The Case Against Monopolies/Monopsonies

What is a monopoly? The Department of Justice currently defines a monopoly as a company that controls over 50% of their market's share. Monopolies not only pose an economic danger because of their restrictive control on their market, but also becuse of the hoarding of wealth by the upper echelon members of the company.

A problem we face today is that market boundaries have not been redefined to reflect the modern digital environment; our outdated laws do not consider web services as a unified market. Because Amazon's work is so varied - ranging from cloud comp to book ​​​​​​sales to shipping etc. - Amazon does NOT fall under this definition of a monopoly. However, as we see from Jeff Bezos' exorbitant wealth, Amazon has clearly enabled him to hoard wealth surpassing the levels held by old school robber barons. As long as this goes unacknowledged, Amazon can continue amassing wealth unchecked from a base of customers who are made increasingly dependent on their services by the day. 

Amazon's monopoly on the online marketplace has given them the power to abuse the small businesses who sell on their platform [link to small business page]. Many business owners have said that as Amazon’s market share in US online commerce has increased, the company has squeezed and otherwise harmed them in new and different ways because they have no viable online alternatives.

The lesser known, yet equally dangerous counterpart to the monopoly is the monopsony. It is the monopoly's inverse: when a single buyer has near total control of a market. For example, Amazon has a monopsony on mail services as it is the main buyer of FedEx and UPS deliveries. Because of their buying power, they can make demands of the company that can and has harmed laborers - most prominently by easing work regulations, denying benefits, and driving down wages. That practice is also expanding beyond the mailing industry and is altering the labor landscape at large. Certain regions are now being converted to Amazon hotspots, dominated by Amazon warehouses, retailers, and other employer extensions. In these areas, Amazon is able to buy the majority of the labor force and thus drive unchallenged exploitation.