There are many ways in which Salt Lake City can take necessary action and restore balance to Utah’s economy. For instance, lawmakers can provide the Utah attorney general’s office with additional resources to go after the largest monopolistic offenders. Lawmakers can also follow the lead of New York and begin toa similar “abuse of dominance” standard for Utah’s antitrust laws — allowing state leaders to more easily challenge Big Tech’s domineering practices.
Regarding Amazon, one area worthy of scrutiny is its longstanding efforts to skirt paying state sales taxes, which has allowed it to dominate the market. Such actions undercut competitors, keeping prices low on its third-party marketplace — all while Amazon can dangle the jobs it has created in Utah as leverage.
Amazon’s strategy to avoid scrutiny in Utah is simple — pumping warehouses and hiring thousands of workers to curry favor with those in Salt Lake City. But this unspoken exchange between states and Amazon comes at a price to small businesses. Utah lawmakers cannot fall prey to this misrepresented opportunity. Greater antitrust enforcement is desperately needed here in Utah — even if Amazon keeps trying to tell lawmakers otherwise.
Businesses, large AND small, have fought against the ACA, increases to the minimum wage, and enforcement of environmental and safety rules as overreach and intrusion by government....now the little guys want government protection from the big guys?
IAmAntitrust Why people love Big Tech and politicians hate them
Jeff Bezos is singlehandedly trying to erase Anti-trust law history in the US.