The German Federal Cartel Office is noew investigating the allegation that Amazon abused a market-dominating position during the coronavirus pandemic.

“We are currently investigating whether and how Amazon influences retailers’ pricing on the marketplace,” told Andreas Mundt.

During the first months of the pandemic, there were complaints that Amazon had blocked retailers because of allegedly excessive prices.

“Amazon must not be a price controller. That also applies now,” Mundt said.

New Amazon 100% Discounts, unfortunately the Amazon drivers or trucking company are independent contractors who are responsible for losses, not Amazon

Amazon is your friend, it wants to help you...

Items listed as “sold by Amazon” saw price increases of anywhere from 48 percent for hand sanitizer (a product category that Amazon said it had placed restrictions on back in March), to 1,000 percent for packs of disposable face masks. In the case of toilet paper, for example, the non-profit group said it found a pack of eight rolls being sold for $36.39 back in June, while other retailers have charged just $6.89 for the same product. One bottle of antibacterial soap was listed at a high of $7, compared to a low of $1.49, an increase of 470 percent.

https://www.citizen.org/article/prime-gouging/

@robertGL

It seems, even today, like the company goes as far as it can to skirt the law and governments are too milquetoast to do anything about it.

Good capitalist companies always do all the same, they become one with government and bend the laws as they want.

Amazon generated $1.6 billion in profit and $3.9 billion in revenue for the USPS in fiscal year 2019, with the postal service delivering 1.54 billion packages for the e-commerce giant. That represented about 30 percent of Amazon’s total volume last year.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/09/17/usps-trump-coronavirus-amazon-foia/

TechCrunch has discovered that parts of Amazon’s law enforcement request portal are visible to anyone on the web without requiring a login. They show what officers need to make requests, and how relatively easy it is to make some demands.

Police can ask for a host of sensitive details, including order ID numbers, device serial numbers, payment details, and even Social Security numbers for delivery drivers. They can share domain names and IP addresses if they’re looking for Amazon Web Services data, too.

No court order or any paper proofs are necessary, any police officer can browse your data and that you ordered even 4 years ago.

https://techcrunch.com/2020/09/27/this-is-how-police-request-customer-data-from-amazon/

The European Union is serving formal antitrust charges to Amazon, saying that the retailer has misused its position to compete against third-party businesses using its platform. Officials, led by competition chief Margrethe Vestager, believe there is enough evidence to charge the company for this misuse. This data, so the claim goes, was used by Amazon to build copycat products to undercut these independent businesses, especially in large markets like France and Germany.

Amazon is doing good in France

Big badaboom coming

Amazon.com, Inc. announced financial results for its fourth quarter ended December 31, 2020.

• Operating cash flow increased 72% to $66.1 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $38.5 billion for the trailing twelve months ended December 31, 2019.
• Free cash flow increased to $31.0 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $25.8 billion for the trailing twelve months ended December 31, 2019.
• Free cash flow less principal repayments of finance leases and financing obligations increased to $20.3 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $16.2 billion for the trailing twelve months ended December 31, 2019.
• Free cash flow less equipment finance leases and principal repayments of all other finance leases and financing obligations increased to $21.4 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $12.5 billion for the trailing twelve months ended December 31, 2019.
• Common shares outstanding plus shares underlying stock-based awards totaled 518 million on December 31, 2020, compared with 512 million one year ago.

Fourth Quarter 2020

• Net sales increased 44% to $125.6 billion in the fourth quarter, compared with $87.4 billion in fourth quarter 2019. Excluding the $1.7 billion favorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, net sales increased 42% compared with fourth quarter 2019.
• Operating income increased to $6.9 billion in the fourth quarter, compared with operating income of $3.9 billion in fourth quarter 2019.
• Net income increased to $7.2 billion in the fourth quarter, or $14.09 per diluted share, compared with net income of $3.3 billion, or $6.47 per diluted share, in fourth quarter 2019.

Full Year 2020

• Net sales increased 38% to $386.1 billion, compared with $280.5 billion in 2019. Excluding the $1.4 billion favorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the year, net sales increased 37% compared with 2019.
• Operating income increased to $22.9 billion, compared with operating income of $14.5 billion in 2019.
• Net income increased to $21.3 billion, or $41.83 per diluted share, compared with net income of $11.6 billion, or $23.01 per diluted share, in 2019.

Amazon is also announcing today that Jeff Bezos will transition to the role of Executive Chair in the third quarter of 2021 and Andy Jassy will become Chief Executive Officer at that time.

“Amazon is what it is because of invention. We do crazy things together and then make them normal. We pioneered customer reviews, 1-Click, personalized recommendations, Prime’s insanely-fast shipping, Just Walk Out shopping, the Climate Pledge, Kindle, Alexa, marketplace, infrastructure cloud computing, Career Choice, and much more,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO. “If you do it right, a few years after a surprising invention, the new thing has become normal. People yawn. That yawn is the greatest compliment an inventor can receive. When you look at our financial results, what you’re actually seeing are the long-run cumulative results of invention. Right now I see Amazon at its most inventive ever, making it an optimal time for this transition.”

Online retailer Amazon is massively transferring employees of its warehouses in the United States on a 10-hour night shift. Those who disagree with the new work schedule, which regional managers informally call "megacycle", are offered to quit.

The new operating mode is designed to improve the efficiency of logistics, and, consequently, to reduce the time interval from the moment the customer places an order to the courier's visit to his home. However, Amazonians United, the unofficial trade union of the retailer's workers, considers this approach "cruel," noting that the corporation pursues its own goals at the expense of the health and safety of employees.

One of Amazon's recent "optimization victims" is the so-called DCH1 warehouse in Chicago, Illinois. The management decided to liquidate DCH1 and transfer its personnel to work in a similar structure of a new format and under new conditions. Employees were asked to switch to opening hours from 1:20 am to 11:50 am.

Important note

Amazon founder and richest man in the world Jeff Bezos has ordered a 127m three-masted sailing yacht from the Dutch shipyard Oceanco. The vessel, which is expected to have an auxiliary yacht with a helipad, will be the largest sailing vessel ever produced by Oceanco, overtaking the Black Pearl, which was built for Oleg Burlakov, a member of the Forbes list.

I wish Bezos to sink with this yacht right above Mariana Trench.