May 12, 2023
Administrator Isabella Guzman
Small Business Administration 409 3rd Street SW
Washington DC, 20416
President Joe Biden The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington DC, 20500
Mr. President and Administrator Guzman:
You invited Amazon to sponsor National Small Business Week. This decision is misguided and incomprehensible given Amazon’s history of growing its monopoly power by destroying competing, smaller businesses. The case of Diapers.com exemplifies Amazon’s thirst for monopoly of online sales. Amazon tracks would-be competitors like Diapers.com and utilizes pricing bots to lower its price by as much as 30% to price-out competitors and push them out of the market. Amazon is willing to forfeit making a profit on a product if it means becoming its sole online seller. Amazon has long been criticized for its grip on the American consumer, hurting local commerce throughout the country. Amazon takes an average cut of 50% from every small business transaction on its website. Small businesses are feeling the pain of such high fees but they feel trapped because the website has a stranglehold on online sales. Profits are tight but small businesses feel compelled to sell on Amazon to survive at all in the online market. In 2022, Politico exposed Amazon for backing the Connected Commerce Council, an organization that purported to represent over 5,000 small
businesses.
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A sample of 61 of those alleged member businesses claimed to not be associated with the organization, some not having even heard of it. This was nothing short of a fraudulent effort to show grassroot support that was never there. Another indication of Amazon’s lack of grassroots support involves its attempt to galvanize a forum of its third-party sellers to oppose congressional proposals to curb Big Tech platforms like itself. In response to requests to speak out in opposition, Amazon’s third-party sellers directly refused and expressed they agree with congressional measures that would increase competition for platforms like Amazon.
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Adding insult to injury, for the past year Amazon has implemented an erroneous system of mislabeling large business with its “small business” badge. This badge is supposed to indicate businesses with less than 100 employees and less than $50 million in revenue, however Amazon has reportedly given this badge to multinational corporations with thousands of employees.
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Considering Amazon’s demonstrable disdain for competition, the idea that it supports small businesses is laughable. I hope you will reconsider your endorsement of Amazon’s thinly veiled theater of supporting small ventures. Sincerely, Ken Buck
Member of Congress
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https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/30/connected-commerce-council-amazon-google-lobbying-00021801
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hps://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/06/amazon-execuve-encourages-sellers-to-oppose-antrust-bill.html
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https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-gave-big-companies-small-business-black-owned-badges-report-2023-4