Lina Khan, who became a legal phenom as a law student for her antitrust criticisms of Amazon, isn’t happy with the e-commerce giant’s $2.5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. On X, the previous FTC chair — who brought the case accusing Amazon of tricking customers into signing up for Prime — and a former colleague wondered whether there had been pressure from the White House to settle.
“Inking this settlement a few days into the trial … raises real questions,” Khan wrote.
Amazon, which brings in more than $150 billion in revenue per quarter, won’t have any problem paying the fine, and admitted no wrongdoing. For big tech companies, such penalties have become part of the price of doing business (remember Facebook’s $5 billion FTC hit?) That could bode relatively well for Amazon in a second, unrelated FTC lawsuit over alleged antitrust violations scheduled to go to trial in 2027.