The attempts to curb allegedly anti-competitive behavior by large technology companies got serious in 2020, when federal and state agencies【C1】_____five separate antitrust lawsuits against Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. Another company at the center of the storm, Amazon.com Inc., has yet to【C2】__legal action, and with officials dedicating【C3】__resources to existing lawsuits, it’s possible to imagine it avoiding lawsuits. But that’s【C4】__, some antitrust experts say, especially given the ruling party’s determination to【C5】_____on anti-competitive behaviour.

“The【C6】_____that the lawsuit launched against Google and Facebook doesn’t mean Amazon is off the hook,” says Sally Hubbard, the director of enforcement strategy at Open Markets Institute, an antimonopoly group based in Washington that’s played a key role in【C7】_____enthusiasm for antitrust enforcement.

Amazon’s critics can【C8】_____point to its dominance. Almost 40 cents of every dollar spent online in the U.S. last year went to the company, which controls more of the online retail market than its nine closest【C9】_____ (including Walmart Inc. and EBay Inc.) combined, according to EMarketer Inc. “Amazon expanded its market power by【C10】_____taxes, extracting state subsidies, and engaging in anticompetitive conduct tactics that have given the company an unfair advantage over【C11】_____and potential rivals,” wrote the authors of a sweeping congressional antitrust report published in October.

State and federal agencies【C12】_____Amazon are focused in part on its enormous third-party marketplace. Outside vendors use the platform to sell【C13】__to consumers, but Amazon also sells its own competing products, and Congress’s antitrust report【C14】__that the company has used data it holds about merchants who use its platform to outmaneuver them. Amazon has rejected the idea that it【C15】__competition. It says it doesn’t hold a dominant market position, because e-commerce is a relatively small【C16】_____of the overall retail market.

Antitrust enforcers are less likely to【C17】_____Amazon, according to a person familiar with the matter,【C18】_____ courts have made it difficult to win cases targeting unilateral conduct by a company,【C19】_____favoring its own products. Mergers and agreements between competitors, the heart of the Google and Facebook cases, are more【C20】_____, and the government knows whatever action it takes is going to be long-lasting and expensive.

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