On Thursday, Bloomberg reported that the FTC is readying to file a far-reaching antitrust lawsuit against Amazon striking at the logistics services that underlie the company’s rapid delivery of online orders.

Fulfillment by Amazon, a logistics service available to merchants selling on the marketplace, enables Amazon to guarantee rapid shipping to shoppers. Polling shows that voters rank fast shipping as the top reason why they subscribe to Amazon Prime.

“You can’t separate Amazon’s logistics services and Amazon’s guarantee of fast delivery for Prime subscribers – they’re one in the same,” said Chamber of Progress Tech Policy Director Koustubh “K.J.” Bagchi. “A lawsuit forcing the breakup of Amazon’s two-day delivery would be a disservice to consumers, who subscribe to Prime for quick delivery, and to online sellers, who rely on fast shipping guarantees to bring in more orders. The result would be disruptive to the entire online marketplace that both consumers and sellers benefit from.”

Approximately half of Amazon’s merchants use Fulfillment by Amazon, and those that do typically see 30% lower shipping costs, although merchants may still sell products through Amazon even if they choose other fulfillment options.

Polling released in May by Chamber of Progress finds a majority (59%) of Amazon Prime members think Amazon should be able to require that sellers ship Prime products from Amazon warehouses in order to maintain the two-day delivery window, even if sellers would prefer to ship it themselves. Two-thirds (66%) of voters use Amazon at least on a weekly basis or more, and a supermajority (91%) of Amazon users are satisfied with their Amazon shopping experience.

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Chamber of Progress (progresschamber.org) is a center-left tech industry policy coalition promoting technology’s progressive future.  We work to ensure that all Americans benefit from technological leaps, and that the tech industry operates responsibly and fairly.  

Our corporate partners do not have a vote on or veto over our positions. We do not speak for individual partner companies and remain true to our stated principles even when our partners disagree.