amazon sets the rules. it gives the side which companies get the best spots which companies rank in the search rankings. who can even be there, what they're allowed to sell, how they can communicate with their customers, what they have to pay in order to be part of it. the old saying is if it walks like a duck in quiet like a duck, it's a duck. so amazon looks like monopoly trades like a monopoly makes money like a monopoly behaves like monopoly. so when i looked at it, you have to use monopolies in the traditional sense, upon a comparable type company. the real definition of a monopoly is when you have the ability to control the terms by which other player is, can access the market. when you have that kind of power to dictate what happens and amazon has that power, amazon has become a kind of gatekeeper. and their strategy is very much about being the e commerce platform for the entire world. ah ah, ah. there may, may, we should all be mayor. may, we should all be angry because of what's going on, right. c

you can see that now in the amazon world on steroids, amazon is in many ways trying to be the whole world of access to the things you might want to buy in its structure in its interconnections, in its being a global information system to supply goods to make your life better if the catalog on life thanks to the internet, has amazon globalize the ideals of the whole earth catalogue? today, stewart brand, its founder, has a very rich friend, jeff, basis me use the affinity between hippies and wall street stop here. ah, jeff basis is a libertarian, advocating for small government, he values complete, entrepreneurial freedom, unimpeded by laws and regulations, with amazon burned off the social vision that animated so many in the $960.00 s, the hope of a better world through consumption, through interconnected information systems, that's gone, this has gone to the consumers of amazon and it's gone along with my local bookstores. it's gone along with my local shops, it's gone. the civic world is not something that i see amazon carrying about at all . and i think that's a great shame. i think it

the the ah the amazon a lot of the retailer, but it's really, it's a mistake to think of amazon that way. amazon is a company that really wants to control the underlying infrastructure of the economy . so wants to be the platform on which all buying and selling happens. it wants to be basically the interface between all buyers and sellers. it is a major part of the, the cloud. it's amazon web services controls about a 3rd of the world's cloud computing capacity. and increasingly it's moving into shipping and package delivery. there isn't anything and history that's quite like amazon. i mean, it's completely a new thing. we've never really encountered anything like this, but you can think about it in some ways, like a railroad in the sense that and that's what amazon controls and lots of other companies need access to that in order to get to market. that's an incredibly powerful position. i don't think amazon has any other competitor that could potentially challenge it. i think the only thing that good stuff amazon today would be government intervention. i now and all you do this is h

first party sellers sell to amazon for amazon to resell at retail to consumers. amazon lowers its retail prices to match or beat the lower price on a competing online marketplace. the wholesalers, listen to this, are forced to pay amazon the difference between the agreed upon profit and with amazon -- with the lowered retail price. this can lead to wholesalers owing amazon millions of dollars. to avoid triggering disagreement, wholesalers have increased their prices on their goods and on competing online marketplaces. in other words, they have agreed to do when amazon wants, that is to charge consumers more for products that they ordinarily would have to pay, but for amazon's illegal agreements. all of these agreements reduce an online marketplace ability to compete with amazon's marketplace for price and result in consumers paying artificially high prices. even outside this litigation, small businesses have complained and complained that amazon has stolen their business ideas and passed them on as amazon's own. let me give you one example. >> attorney general, i

amazon is a largest store in the world. it sends out $150.00 parcels per 2nd, adding up to 5000000000 each year. it's boss jeff bezos has a single obsession to sell everything instantly everywhere. and to satisfy his customers every desire without delay. there are 300000000 amazon customers worldwide today. the multinational company is revolutionizing commerce and the way we consume it is even succeeded in shrinking time and space. how exactly is amazon taking over the whole planet? what does jeff bezos want that he doesn't already have? what future does the multinational wish to impose on us and at what cost? with our story begins in 1994 in seattle suburb jeff bezos, a 30 something wall street expatriate creates amazon and its garage. and jeff basis and what are your, what is your claim to fame and the founder of amazon dot com. where did you get an idea for amazon dot com? well, 3 years ago, i was in new york city where he for quantitative hedge fund. when it came across the startling statistic, the web usage was great i

amazon claims -- for this one, i actually want to get amazon on it. they claim that direct connection between managers & associates is the most effective way to respond to the wants and needs of amazon employees. now, it's certainly effective for amazon's bottom line. but, ms. brown, can you tell us how effective this direct connection that amazon talks about negotiating with amazon without a union has been for you and for your fellow workers? >> so -- okay. so my colleagues and i have been fighting for change at amazon for years. instead of listening to us and working with us to find solutions, they tend to double down and continue to exploit us. so that's why we speak out to improve working conditions and for executives to take us seriously. so, you know, going against amazon especially say when you are going to be written up or something is kind of like, you know, trying to defend yourself in court. it's not going -- it is usually not going to go too well sfa well, i am very concerned that the workers that are most at risk during this pandemic are

amazon's illegal agreements. all of these agreement reduce an online marketplace ability to compete with amazon's marketplace on price and results in consumers getting artificially high prices. even outside of this litigation, small businesses have complained and complained amazon has strong business ideas and got them off amazon's own. >> attorney general, i will have to stop you here in a minute, we've got about five minutes for each of our witnesses but we will be able to ask you some questions because i definitely want to hear this. is that okay? >> absolutely, i am happy to stop right here. >> great, okay, thank you so much. appreciate it. mr. flynn, you are recognized for five minutes you need to hit your button. >> chairman warren, ranking member cassidy, members of the subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to speak with you today on this fundamentally important topic. i direct the open markets answer to ed it's good to see you today. economics of the governing of how people compete with an exercise powe

thanks to amazon. seattle has become a favorite city for the american executive class but at night, seattle becomes a completely different city in since amazon's arrival with its numerous hires of senior executives, rents and seattle have been rising by 10 percent each year. the poorest can no longer find housing, even if they have a job me here. 30 percent of the homeless population is employed at city hall, seattle's younger city, counsellor theresa mosquito made housing. the priority of mandate me with out of 600 percent increase in how and homelessness. and we saw twice the amount of people who are living in our v's become homeless. that number is immense. you can see the crisis of poverty and homelessness on the street. however, here in seattle, we have a higher rate of homelessness per capita than cities like los angeles, which is a call for action. and it's imperative that we do something. we have a 1000 people who are moving to this region a week, which means that we're not building housing. th

amazon associates have been fighting back about this for years. and the amazon expected model. jeff bezos himself recently told that he plans to use more automated control in the workshop. and they're setting up high-tech sweatshops. they're a numbers company. people who look like me that have limited choices and they know we can't afford to complain or refuse bad conditions. amazon takes advantage of this desperation. the pandemic has closed a lot of businesses in the area so usually someone like me would have considered looking for another job, i can't because there are no jobs available or the pay isn't enough to make rent and food on the table. this committee in competition and economics in the tech sectors, where corporations move to maximize profits and ensures all means necessary, including exploiting workers, and small businesses. and to you to stop places like amazon from ruining our economy and dictating the workers for hundreds of millions of workers like me. i'm asking you to help me put an end to inhumane american workers injured, exhausted and mentally battered ea

so the amazon is life. if i leave you with anything i will, i would love for everyone to recognize that the amazon rain forest by on the base in is life. and we still have time to turn around the tipping point. the amazon is a tipping point of ecological collapse at this time, but we still have time if we is we put all our energy and forces together to call for the permanent protection of the amazon rain forest and the recognition demarcation and titling of indigenous peoples, lance and as you must, she pi ah, from the shingle region recently sad just at cop $26.00 on that it is about gathering funds and supporting indigenous peoples and investing in the protection of the amazon rain forest. but it's not just about money, because money is actually one of the reasons why we're in this problem. it is also a bow, basic respect for indigenous peoples for forest people's. it's about respect work for people and we're are plenty in. if we do that, then we can protect the rain forest and we can protect our climate

so the amazon is life. if i leave you with any being i will, i would love for everyone to recognize that the amazon rain forest, by on the base in is life. and we still have time to turn around the tipping point . the amazon is at a tipping point of ecological collapse at this time, but we still have time if we is we put all our energy and forces together to call for the permanent protection of the amazon rain forest and the recognition demarcation and titling of indigenous peoples lance and as you must, she pi aah from the shingle region recently. so just at cop $26.00 on that it is about gathering funds and supporting indigenous peoples and investing in the protection of the amazon rain forest. but it's not just about money, because money is actually one of the reasons why we're in this problem. it is also a bow, basic respect for indigenous peoples for forest people's. it's about respect work for people and we're are plenty in. if we do that, then we can protect the rain forest and we can protect our cli

i am headed back to the amazon. i wanted to know more about the environmental, his lives, and their battle to save the rain forest. who had been behind the killings. why and what did the murder say about the whiter fight to protect the environment? recent years i've seen the brazilian government dramatically reduced the rate of amazon d 4 station. but the destruction continues with over 6000 square kilometers last, last year alone. if standing up to those interested and profiting from the forest destruction meant being executed, what hope was there for its future? my 1st stop was a family home in matter. bah! where the wake had been held in may a gritty amazon mining town might have been the nearest major city to the rural settlement. whereas those a claudio, known as zach claudio and mighty, i lived since their murders terrified relatives have been in hiding here. hi denise. oh to the with whoa whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hang these to with stories, mr. lambert, who is having a lattice face tomo

the 10th when a tornado hit the amazon distribution center. the lawsuit accuses the companies of not building the 4 year old warehouse up to code and not including a basement. they allege that this building was built to code. we do not know affirmatively if that was true. >> but regardless of we certainly know in different areas of the country, a certain areas can be prone to severe inclement weather. amazon is taking the position that those that survived were sheltering and there's a significant difference between sheltering and being given a proper storm shelter for those. but fortunately did survive this horrible tragedy. they have been to be on the north end of the building. there's no evidence whatsoever that this building at an appropriate basement shelter or a storm shelter. and unfortunately, austin mckeown 5 others are on the south side of the building, a shelter at the direction of amazon in a bathroom and all this could have been avoided. had amazon keeping these possible tornado warnings sincerity throughout the day as the warnings

amazon essentially controls the market place. it's not really a market, it's a private arena, a world where a single company controls the distribution of a data products and the infrastructure of our economy. is this the woo, according to amazon, ah, with this is been by phone business. yeah. you can't afford to miss. i'm rachel blevins and i bridge lauren washington. here's what we have coming up. the united states has seen its highest annual growth rate in nearly 40 years of the nation's economy, roared back in 2021. we're going to discuss that performance, and as major central banks are moving to raise their interest rate, the international monetary fund is warning of instability. then days after the bank of russia proposed to complete ban on crypto mining, we're now hearing a different tone from the nations leader. we'll discuss all the latest. we have a lot to cover. so let's get started. and we lead the program with the state of the economic recovery in the world. number one, economy gross domestic product in the united sta

let's just use amazon. that whatever is the content, they have no responsibility for monitoring or doing anything, disclosing anything. so, there is -- i am co-sponsor of, what is it, the safe act, which requires that in certain instances, these platforms will not have the benefit of liability protection. one of the instances would be if they actually receive money for that item to be advertised on their platforms. >> well, section 230 allows us to actually take down the content. that's why it's so vital that we have that liability protection. so, anything that would harm or dilute that protection would be a concern of ours. >> well, except that if the platform does not take down this product, as was the case with mr. muderick, then shouldn't there be some liability attaching? because right now there's nothing that really requires these platforms to take those kinds of precautions. if they want to, they can. if they don't, they still -- >> actually, ma'am, there is law now that says if we are notified of so

product to one we had on amazon. >> and it was said that amazon encouraged people to break those procedures, and amazon's own internal documents reveal they're still doing the same thing. the market has reported evidence that amazon is systematically reducing its search engine for products. we can talk all day about the products of counterfeit goods, and that's significant, but that's not going to make a huge dent unless we do something about the self-preferencing on these platforms. i joined legislation by senator klobuchar and senator grassley that heads in the same direction, and i just want to under line that i think it's absolutely vital that we tackle this issue. last thing, mr. muderick, in my few remaining seconds here, senator blackburn was asking about some of the country of origin issues, and i want to highlight this. your product -- tell us about the problem of counterfeiters using high-strength magnets in some of the knockoffs of your product. and i think some of these were not made in the united states of america, is that right? >> that's correct, these samples i got last week