WASHINGTON – Merchant groups form national coalition to campaign for tougher antitrust laws, including measures Amazon.com Inc. could force it to divest some of its businesses.
The effort will be launched Tuesday by trade groups representing small hardware stores, office suppliers, booksellers, grocers and others, along with business groups from 12 cities, organizers say. Merchants plan to push their congressional representatives to tougher antitrust laws and enforce existing ones.
The groups, which together represent thousands of companies, want federal legislation that would prevent the owner of a dominant online marketplace from selling their own products in competition with other sellers, a policy that could effectively separate Amazon’s retail product business from its online marketplace.
Members of the House Antitrust Subcommittee are considering legislation along these lines when weighing changes to the US antitrust law, although no bill has yet been introduced.
The merchant groups also want tougher competition law enforcement and legislative changes that would make it easier for the government to win antitrust cases against large corporations.