All the Big Tech firms (Amazon, Apple, and Google) have leveraged their monopoly power in one market to gain dominance or favorable terms in another market. For example, Google leveraged its position in the Android market to establish Google Search and the Google Play Store as the default apps across all third-party Android handsets. In 2018, Apple introduced a Screen Time app, a new feature that allowed parents to track and control how much time their children were spending on their iPhones. Soon thereafter, Apple removed a number of parental-control apps from its App Store.

According to a Wall Street Journal investigative report, Amazon told smart thermostat maker Ecobee that it had to share data from its voice-enabled devices even when customers weren’t using them. Allegedly, Amazon told the company that if Ecobee didn’t share the data, that would affect its ability to sell its devices through the Amazon marketplace. In addition, Amazon told the company that it could potentially not retain Amazon’s certification on future models or have access to big selling events like Amazon Prime Day.

Amazon is a prime example of abuse of this power. In 2010, Amazon was closely tracking Quidsi, the owner of Diapers.com, and identified Diapers.com as its largest and fastest-growing competitor in the online diaper and baby care space. Amazon was very concerned about the pricing pressure that the company was putting on it and its high level of customer service. According to the House antitrust report, Amazon executives took swift and predatory action in response to this competitive threat. Internal Amazon documents showed that the firm entered into an aggressive price war, in which Amazon was willing to bleed more than $200 million in losses on diapers in one month. Under extreme price pressure, the founders of Quidsi.com had no other option but to sell the company to Amazon.

To address the conflicts of interest identified, Congress should consider regulations that draw upon the two key components of its anti-monopoly toolkit: structural separations and line of business restrictions. Structural separation would prohibit a marketplace intermediary from operating in markets in competition with third-party sellers. Line of business restrictions would limit the markets that a marketplace could compete in. For example, Amazon could be asked to divest itself of its private-label business so that it couldn’t develop products that compete with third-party sellers.