U.S Antitrust enforcers have gone deeper into their investigation of Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) due to suspicion raised by individuals who wish to remain anonymous. The investigation by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has expanded its investigation based on the suspicious that Amazon is hurting the competition in ways that violate antitrust laws. The investigation of the massive corporation hasn't resulted in any legal action against Amazon at this time.
Investigators from the FTC have interviewed other computer software companies, inquiring about Amazon's business dealings involving Amazon's cloud unit, which is referred to as Amazon Web Service.
Amazon's Web Service is said to be more than twice the size of its competition Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) Azure. Amazon's Web Services share is placed at 48% and Microsoft is at 16%, according to Gartner Inc.
Amazon's Web Service is also responsible for 60% of the company's base income in the last year. The increase in income has brought more investors to the company in spite of the increase in spending on Amazon's part. The company's added expenses is a result of Amazon making yet another attempt to expand.
Amazon's retail business containing millions of products runs on their cloud-computing service along with their databases, machine-learning tools and data-warehousing product.
One of the many reasons for the investigation of the FTC is the evidence of discrimination of other companies by Amazon that is in the computer technology business. Amazon, the retail platform portion, uses third-party sellers who are also threatened by Amazon's own products, compromising their businesses.
The Amazon inquiry by the FTC is just a minute step in their sweeping investigation of all companies in the technology business. Other companies that are under a similar investigation include Alphabet/Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL), Facebook (NASDAQ: FB), and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). Some are being investigated by federal and state authorities while others are being investigated by the House Judiciary Committee.