Lone Candle
Champion of Truth
“President Donald Trump fired Democratic Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Commissioners Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter on Tuesday. In so doing, Trump is ignoring a 90-year-old Supreme Court precedent that restricts the removal of commissioners to “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office,” which could make the terminations illegal.”
https://reason.com/2025/03/19/trump-fires-democratic-ftc-commissioners/
FTC Chair Lina Khan on Antitrust, Innovation, and China’s Competitive Challenge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_QaZk5iJOA
“a Kroger-Albertsons merger would not create a monopoly in the grocery market. According to a recent report by Retail Info Systems, Walmart remains the nation’s largest grocer, controlling 17 percent of the grocery market. The second and third largest grocers are Amazon and Costco. Kroger and Albertsons are only a distant fourth and sixth with market shares of 4.4 percent and 2.2 percent, respectively.
Grocery stores have experienced a declining market share, while superstores and online competitors have grown. For example, like many traditional grocers, Kroger’s market share has declined in recent years while Walmart’s has increased. Even if Kroger and Albertsons were to merge, it’s not clear that their combined market share wouldn’t continue to decline. The merger would simply enable Albertsons and Kroger to bulk up and compete with larger competitors, like Walmart.
In addition, Kroger’s decision to sell stores in overlapping markets where Albertsons operates means the merger would not increase concentration in any market. This has traditionally been enough for the FTC.
The national grocery market is also becoming more competitive, not less. No longer limited to brick-and-mortar supermarkets and independent grocery stores, the grocery market now includes a growing assortment of e-commerce stores, like Amazon, discount grocers like Aldi and Lidl, and delivery providers like FreshDirect and Instacart. These newer market entrants have fundamentally altered grocery shopping.
The merger will heighten competition among larger competitors, which will drive down prices for consumers. While a merger would not make Kroger and Albertsons the dominant industry players, it would allow them to compete more effectively with others, putting pressure on all major retailers to keep prices low as they fight to preserve their customer base. In fact, Kroger and Albertsons have indicated that the merger will generate $500 million in new cost savings for them that they plan to use to cut consumer prices. In addition, they plan to expand their lineup of affordable store brand products and spend $1.3 billion on improving customer service at Albertsons stores.”
https://reason.com/2023/11/24/ftc-fights-grocery-store-merger-that-may-bring-down-prices/
“The FTC’s complaint revolves around mundane moves by Amazon, like conspicuously asking non-Prime customers if they want to sign up or requiring Prime subscribers to click through several screens to unsubscribe.
Patrick Hedger, executive director of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, noted that it took him under a minute and required just six clicks to cancel his Prime account—fewer clicks than it takes to submit a public comment on the FTC website.
Like many major companies, Amazon has some flaws. But the argument that it’s broadly harmful to consumers—let alone so harmful that it requires the intervention of the federal government—is so far removed from reality that only government bureaucrats with an ax to grind could make it with straight faces. (In fact, Amazon routinely garners extremely high favorability ratings in consumer polls.)”
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“During the checkout process, in some cases, “the option to purchase items on Amazon without subscribing to Prime was more difficult for consumers to locate,” states the FTC press release—as if it’s Amazon’s fault that some consumers might be a little less observant or tech-savvy. The option is not hidden, mind you; plenty of non-Prime members find it and purchase items without joining Prime. But they may have to spend an extra second or two looking—and the government is making a federal case out of it.”