Amazon practiced “anticompetitive restraint” at least until two years ago by barring its third-party sellers through a “price parity provision” (PPP) in its contracts from offering their products on a competing online retail sales platform, alleged District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine (D) Tuesday in a D.C. Superior Court antitrust complaint. “Competition and consumers were directly harmed by virtue of higher prices, as well as through the loss of choice, innovation, and competition among online retail sales platforms.” Other e-commerce platforms “were not able to use lower product prices to lure buyers and sellers” to “capture some of Amazon’s dominant market share,” it said. Amazon removed the PPPs in 2019 “under intense scrutiny from Congress and U.S. government regulatory officials” but quickly replaced it with “an effectively-identical substitute,” it alleged. “There is a dangerous probability that Amazon will be successful in achieving its goal of obtaining monopoly power in the online retail sales market (if it has not already done so).” The lawsuit seeks statutory and punitive damages and asks for a “corporate monitor” to enforce any remedies the court may order. The D.C. attorney general "has it exactly backwards," responded an Amazon spokesperson. "Sellers set their own prices for the products they offer in our store. Amazon takes pride in the fact that we offer low prices across the broadest selection, and like any store we reserve the right not to highlight offers to customers that are not priced competitively. The relief the AG seeks would force Amazon to feature higher prices to customers, oddly going against core objectives of antitrust law.” But Public Knowledge hails the complaint because consumers "are paying more than they should for what they buy online as a direct result of Amazon’s conduct," said Policy Counsel Alex Petros. "Third-party sellers should be allowed to contract freely with platforms that offer them the best deal to reach customers -- not limited by Amazon’s self-enriching terms."
A New York privacy bill has “strong teeth,” Consumer Reports said Monday. The Senate Consumer Protection Committee advanced the bill by Chairman Kevin Thomas (D) to the floor last week (see 2105180028). “Unlike other industry-supported bills that have been introduced this year, this bill protects consumers’ privacy by default,” said CR Senior Policy Analyst Maureen Mahoney.
With ransomware attacks like Colonial Pipeline “in the spotlight recently,” Palo Alto Networks data shows the average ransom paid in 2020 tripled from 2019, “and in 2021 it's more than doubled again,” said CEO Nikesh Arora on a Thursday call for fiscal Q3 ended April 30. Organized groups with “near-nation state discipline” are perpetrating “coordinated attacks,” he said. Healthcare corporations are a common target, as are government entities and “shared infrastructure,” he said. Especially vulnerable are organizations that “run their operations on technology that is decades old, sometimes predating the internet,” said Arora. “They continually bolt on new technologies to automate facilities, and make them compatible with the modern internet, but those platforms are inherently insecure.” Cyber defenses are fragmented, “making it very challenging to block sophisticated attacks,” and extending the time “to discovery and repair,” he said: “More and more businesses and consumers are coming online without a baseline of productive protection.” Q3 revenue of $1.07 billion grew 24% year over year, ahead of guidance for 21% to 22% growth. Its fiscal Q4 outlook is for revenue to grow 22% to 23% again. The stock closed 5.8% higher Friday at $362.45.
Demand and adoption of cyber insurance increased, GAO reported to House and Senate Armed Services committee leaders, released Thursday. Marsh McLennan reported the proportion of clients holding such insurance gained from 26% in 2016 to 47% in 2020, GAO said. Others reported higher prices reflecting increased demand. Increasing cyberattacks caused insurers to reduce coverage limits for some industry sectors, GAO said. Insurers report they increasingly sell cyber-specific insurance rather than bundling it.
Target shares hit a 52-week high at $218.50 Wednesday, after Q1 revenue jumped 23% to $24.2 billion from the year-ago period. Executives attributed gains to an omnichannel strategy, saying more than 95% of sales were fulfilled by stores. Digital comparable sales grew 50% and same-day services gained 90%, led by drive-up. Drive-up was 5% of digital sales two years ago, growing to 30%-plus in Q1, said CEO Brian Cornell. "Our stores and digital channels complement each other.” He said that "it’s not one vs. the other.” Shares closed up 6.1% at $219.01.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development joined the Christchurch Call campaign combating social media extremism (see 1905150047). This advances OECD’s work, said Secretary General Angel Gurria Wednesday: OECD is committed to “like-minded governments, in consultation with experts from business, civil society and academia, collaborating to improve the evidence base and help to build better policies for better lives.”
U.S. cloud infrastructure spending rose 29% in Q1 to a record $18.6 billion on “digital transformation” spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, reported Canalys Tuesday: Increases were also fueled by economic recovery and restarting delayed projects. The U.S. had 44% of global spending; China was 15%. Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud accounted for 69% of total spending. The relevance of digital services is increasing due to remote working and learning, content streaming, gaming and e-commerce, it said, and enterprise digital transformation is returning “with renewed economic confidence.” There's a proposed $1 billion Technology Modernization Fund (see 2104090041), it noted.
Top U.S. cable and wireline ISPs gained 1.02 million net broadband subscribers in Q1 vs. 1.17 million in the year-ago quarter, reported Leichtman Research Group Tuesday. Cable had 73.77 million of 107 million total subscribers, adding 935,000 subs. Telcos had 33.3 million customers, adding 85,000 vs. a net loss of 60,000. Losses among telco non-fiber subs were more than offset by over 400,000 fiber adds, bringing fiber-based telco broadband subs to about 14.6 million. Over the past year, there were about 4.7 million net broadband user adds vs. 2.8 million the prior year, said Principal Bruce Leichtman.
Washington, D.C., Council members set a Sept. 16 hearing on a bill to require a plan to upgrade internet in neighborhoods with slow speeds and address affordability gaps. The Government Operations and Facilities Committee hears B24-0200 at noon, said Monday's notice. Ten council members supported the measure last month (see 2104060063).
The National Institute of Standards and Technology plans a virtual workshop June 2-3 on developing standards and guidelines for software supply chain security, as directed by President Joe Biden’s recent executive order (see 2105130065). The EO directs NIST to help lead two pilot labeling programs to inform consumers about IoT device security.