Tell the FTC to Take Amazon to Trial
It's no secret that running an independent small business in Eastern Washington has gotten harder over the last decade. Fewer foot-traffic customers, tighter margins, and — if you sell anything online — a growing sense that the deck is stacked against you. A lot of that feeling has a name: Amazon.
Right now, there's a federal antitrust lawsuit sitting on the docket that could change things. The Federal Trade Commission sued Amazon in 2023, documenting how the company uses its dominance over online retail to squeeze out the independent businesses that rely on its platform. The case has the potential to restore real competition to the online marketplace. But only if it actually goes to trial.
The Small Business Rising Coalition — a nationwide network of independent business associations representing booksellers, hardware stores, toy sellers, pharmacies, restaurants, farmers, fishermen, and more — has sent a letter urging FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson to see this case through to the end. SIMBA stands behind that call. Eastern Washington has no shortage of exactly these kinds of businesses, and what happens in this courtroom will be felt on our Main Streets.
Here's what's at stake.
Amazon captures roughly half of all online spending in the United States. That's not a coincidence — it's the result of a deliberate strategy to control the infrastructure that commerce depends on. If you want to reach customers online, you almost have to go through Amazon. And once you're there, the terms aren't exactly fair: ever-changing algorithms that pressure you to buy ads just to stay visible, arbitrary account deactivations with no recourse, and the use of your own sales data to build competing products.
The numbers tell the story. Between 2007 and 2022, the number of independent retailers in America fell by nearly 70,000. About 40 percent of the nation's small apparel, toy, and sporting goods makers disappeared. These weren't businesses that failed to compete — they were businesses that couldn't get a fair shot.
More recently, Amazon launched a program called "Buy For Me" that scrapes independent business websites without consent and inserts Amazon as a middleman into sales that used to happen directly between a business and its customer. This isn't innovation. It's a company using its size to take over territory it didn't earn.
What we're asking for.
The Small Business Rising Coalition's letter — signed by independent business associations from across the country — calls on the FTC and state attorneys general to carry this case all the way to trial and pursue remedies strong enough to actually fix the problem. Not a settlement, not a slap on the wrist. A full, public airing of the evidence.
As the FTC's own lawsuit put it, the online marketplace should be "a wide-open frontier where anyone with a good idea would have a fair shot at success." That vision is slipping away. We want to see it restored.
Add your voice.
If you're a small business owner in Eastern Washington who has felt the squeeze — higher fees, algorithmic black boxes, unfair competition from the very platform you depend on — this is your chance to say something. Sign the petition and let the FTC know that Spokane and the Inland Northwest's independent businesses are watching.
Independent businesses are the backbone of communities like ours across Eastern Washington. When they disappear, we don't just lose a store — we lose jobs, local tax revenue, and the dollars that used to stay right here in our communities. This case matters. Let's make sure the FTC knows it.
