The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed a lawsuit against Amazon for “illegally maintaining monopoly power”.

The lawsuit relates to Amazon.com and is also being brought upon the retail giant by 17 state attorney generals.

The lawsuit contests that Amazon has used a set of “interlocking anticompetitive and unfair strategies” to illegally maintain its monopoly power.

“Our complaint lays out how Amazon has used a set of punitive and coercive tactics to unlawfully maintain its monopolies,” said FTC chair Lina M. Khan.

She continued: “The complaint sets forth detailed allegations noting how Amazon is now exploiting its monopoly power to enrich itself while raising prices and degrading service for the tens of millions of American families who shop on its platform and the hundreds of thousands of businesses that rely on Amazon to reach them.”

Khan concluded that the lawsuit seeks to hold Amazon to account for the alleged monopolistic practices and to restore the “lost promise of free and fair competition.”

Amazon has refuted the claims and deemed the lawsuit “misguided”.

It went on to claim in a statement that “if successful, [the lawsuit] would force Amazon to engage in practices that actually harm consumers and the many businesses that sell in our store—such as having to feature higher prices, offer slower or less reliable Prime shipping, and make Prime more expensive and less convenient.”

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