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President Donald Trump resumed his public campaign against the Washington Post and on Monday called the newspaper "expensive lobbyist" in favor of Amazon.com ]] Inc. The two companies share the billionaire Jeff Bezos as the owner.
Trump has already argued that the online retailer had a "huge problem (antitrust)". Your administration could act, in theory, against Amazon through consumer protection investigations, antitrust or even pressurizing your business with government contracts.
Amazon dropped 2.4% after Trump's tweet and then recovered some of that loss.
The explosion of Trump against the Washington Post takes place after publication on Sunday. According to an article in the newspaper, the president is deprived of the lack of progress in negotiations with North Korea on the elimination of its nuclear program.
Shortly before criticizing the post, the president tweeted that "all of Asia is satisfied" in advance and noted that North Korea has not conducted any tests of nuclear or ballistic missiles for months.
"But the Fake News [noticias falsas] says, without ever asking me (always with anonymous sources), that I'm angry because it does not move fast enough," said Trump. "Bad, I'm very happy!" Fifteen minutes later, he started tweeting on Amazon.
"They went crazy"
"Amazon and Washington Post went crazy about me since they lost the tax case [a las ventas] on the Internet before the US Supreme Court two months ago. they use, for a fraction of the actual cost, as their "deliveryman" for a large percentage of their shipments, "said Trump in a Twitter post.
Amazon did not participate in the Supreme Court case, which faced South Dakota with three smaller online retailers. The court voted 5-4 in favor of allowing local and state governments to require online retailers to charge their sales taxes to their customers, even if the retailer does not have any stores or warehouses in the state.
Even before the decision, Amazon imposed taxes on consumers in states with sales taxes, but only when selling products from their own inventory. About half of its sales involve products owned by millions of outside sellers, many of whom do not charge taxes.
Trump continued with the tweet a few minutes later: "In my opinion, the Washington Post is nothing but a lobbyist. dear (the newspaper loses a fortune) in favor of Amazon.It is used as protection against antitrust claims that many believe should be presented?
In addition, Brad Parscale, in charge of Trump's re-election campaign for 2020, reportedly complained of the company to Trump.
Traditional independence
Traditional independence and slowness Investigations by the Department of Justice or the Federal Trade Commission could limit Trump's ability to order antitrust penalties against the company.
Amazon spent $ 3.47 million in the lobby in the second quarter of 2018, which represents a quarterly record for the company, according to documents presented to the government Friday.
Trump repeatedly attacked Amazon, the Washington Post and its owner, the top executive of Amazon, Jeff Bezos. In April, after several attacks on the online sales giant, Trump set up a task force to review the postal service's business practices. postal service to perform what is called the "last mile" of the expedition.
Trump has often said that the postal service loses money because of Amazon. The service, which can only legally charge shipping companies their shipping costs, rejects the charge.
Amazon has been the subject of close scrutiny among a younger generation of antitrust activists who argue that the current antitrust enforcement framework is ill-prepared to fight the Amazon's dominance and the potential harm it poses to competition.
One of the architects of the claim, Lina Khan, of the Open Markets Institute, will join the office of the Federal Trade Commissioner, Rohit Chopra.
If the administration opens an antitrust investigation, the officials of it will have to demonstrate that the company has a monopoly on a market and that it has abused its dominant position.
But they focus instead on the harm to consumers; and Amazon's retail platform is highly valued by its customers for its breadth and convenience. Amazon spokeswoman Jodi Seth declined to comment on the tweets on Monday.
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