The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Amazon.com are scheduled to meet next week in anticipation of a possibly long-awaited antitrust action against the store.

During the Trump administration, the FTC started looking into Amazon. The business has come under fire for, among other things, purportedly favoring its own goods and disfavoring outside vendors on its marketplace. This is denied by Amazon. After thorough investigations, the FTC frequently consults with businesses before determining whether to pursue a lawsuit.

During the Trump administration, the Justice Department and FTC launched investigations into four major tech companies: Alphabet's Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon. A significant report by a House group that examined how the four giants dominate their industries came after that.

Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet, has been sued twice by the Justice Department—once for its search business and once for advertising technology. Meta's Facebook has been sued by the FTC. No trial has yet been held in any of the three instances.

In a lawsuit filed in June, the FTC claimed that Amazon had illegally signed up millions of customers for its paid Amazon Prime subscription program and made it difficult for them to unsubscribe. The FTC's assertions, according to Amazon, are "false on the facts and the law."
On May 31, the FTC announced a $5.8 million settlement with Amazon's Ring doorbell camera unit after alleging that some customers had been watched by cameras.

Amazon also agreed to pay $25 million to resolve FTC claims that it violated children's privacy rights by failing to delete recordings made by the Alexa virtual assistant at the parents' request and storing them longer than necessary. This settlement was reached in May.

Other critics have claimed that Amazon overstepped its bounds by forbidding major competitors from running advertisements against its goods on the Amazon platform and by using below-cost prices on goods and services to retain customers, including with Prime.

According to reports, Amazon is anticipated to argue against the FTC bringing an antitrust lawsuit against the business during discussions with the commissioners. After thorough investigations, the FTC frequently consults with businesses before determining whether to pursue a lawsuit.