{"id":576174,"date":"2021-06-29T08:50:41","date_gmt":"2021-06-29T12:50:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=576174"},"modified":"2021-06-29T08:50:44","modified_gmt":"2021-06-29T12:50:44","slug":"federal-trade-commission-review-could-throw-wrench-in-amazon-mgm-merger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/federal-trade-commission-review-could-throw-wrench-in-amazon-mgm-merger\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Trade Commission Review Could Throw Wrench in Amazon-MGM Merger"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffederal-trade-commission-review-could-throw-wrench-in-amazon-mgm-merger%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=576174&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Amazon-MGM.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is set to review Amazon\u2019s $8.45 billion purchase of venerable Hollywood studio MGM, home of franchises like James Bond and Rocky. The agency\u2019s probe comes as it gets a new head who has been especially critical of Amazon\u2019s business expansions in the past.<\/p>\n<p>In a Yale Law Journal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yalelawjournal.org\/note\/amazons-antitrust-paradox\">article<\/a>, Lina Khan, who ascended to the FTC\u2019s top office on June 15, wrote that Amazon \u201chas evaded government scrutiny in part through fervently devoting its business strategy and rhetoric to reducing prices for consumers. It is as if Bezos charted the company\u2019s growth by first drawing a map of antitrust laws, and then devising routes to smoothly bypass them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kahn concluded, \u201cThe conflicts of interest created through Amazon\u2019s expansion into distinct lines of business are especially troubling.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Columbia Law professor\u2019s on-the record views would seem to bode ill for Amazon\u2019s upcoming review in front of the FTC.<\/p>\n<p>The Wall Street Journal&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/amazons-planned-purchase-of-mgm-to-be-reviewed-by-ftc-11624379614\">points out<\/a>&nbsp;that landing before that agency rather than the Justice Department could be a worst-case scenario for Amazon:<\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"19\">\n<p><em>Though the FTC and Justice Department have similar antitrust authority, their procedures are different, and companies generally prefer to have their matters before the department because its process is more straightforward.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>If the Justice Department wants to block a merger, it must go to court and win a case. The FTC, by contrast, has the option to challenge a transaction in its own administrative-court proceedings, and can go to federal court concurrently to seek a preliminary injunction blocking a merger while its in-house legal proceedings take place. That two-track process can be more complicated, and companies face high hurdles to winning a case run through the FTC\u2019s administrative system.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In other words, the FTC has more mechanisms for blocking the merger should it ultimately find reason to.<\/p>\n<p>As the Daily Wire previously <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/five-conservative-films-amazon-and-jeff-bezos-have-censored\">reported<\/a>, Amazon has a long history of suppressing content that earns left-wing ire. It\u2019s purchase of MGM includes a massive library of more than 4,000 films and 7,000 television shows, including several properties like \u201cSilence of the Lambs\u201d and older films in the James Bond franchise that have come <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/news\/uk-news\/james-bond-sexist-racist-rapist-11921620\">under<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/culture\/22281548\/silence-of-the-lambs-cultural-impact-legacy-feminist-transphobia\">fire<\/a> from feminists and LGBTQ activists.<\/p>\n<p>The tech giant\u2019s poor record of providing content to the public once special interests complain helped fuel political opposition from legislators like Congressman Ken Buck (R-CO) and Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO), both of whom are promising to try to prevent the merger from coming to pass.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBig Tech companies with extensive monopoly power, such as Amazon, have continued to expand through acquisitions of smaller competitors, such as MGM,\u201d Buck told <a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/6052162\/amazon-mgm-sale\/\">&nbsp;Time<\/a> magazine immediately after the merger was announced. \u201cThe FTC has failed to strongly enforce antitrust laws or hold offenders accountable for the past decade. This hurts competition and consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Buck said he plans to introduce legislation that \u201cbrings stricter scrutiny on mergers from monopoly companies\u201d to the House floor.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile Hawley introduced the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawley.senate.gov\/senator-hawley-introduces-trust-busting-twenty-first-century-act-plan-bust-anti-competitive-big\">Trust-Busting for the Twenty-First Century Act<\/a>\u201d and the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawley.senate.gov\/senator-hawley-introduces-bust-big-tech-act\">Bust Up Big Tech Act<\/a>\u201d in April. \u201cThis sale should not go through,\u201d he tweeted of the MGM deal. \u201cAmazon is already a monopoly platform that owns e-commerce, shipping, groceries &amp; the cloud. They shouldn\u2019t be permitted to buy anything else. Period.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a class=\"in-cell-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">member<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is set to review Amazon\u2019s $8.45 billion purchase of venerable Hollywood studio MGM, home of franchises like James Bond and Rocky. The agency\u2019s probe comes &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2313627,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Amazon-MGM.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Federal Trade Commission Review Could Throw Wrench in Amazon-MGM Merger","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-576174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Amazon-MGM.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Federal Trade Commission Review Could Throw Wrench in Amazon-MGM Merger","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2313627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}