Lina Khan’s Amazon suit is about customers, not a vendetta

Plus: Starbucks cups, Gen Z government jobs and more. [Bloomberg]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a monopoly of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - The Feds [go after]( the Everything Store. - Starbucks cups [won’t save]( the ocean floor. - Gen Z [isn’t interested]( in joining the Peace Corps. - Economic [statistics]( make my eyes sore. Lina Khan’s Amazon Moment Can you imagine if a paper you wrote in college were to follow you for the rest of your career? Personally, I would rather eat [shrimp poop]( than have any of you read my dumb essays from undergrad. Nobody wants to hear what I think about Carnival, Caste, and the Cognizance of Jane Eyre or The Mechanics of Suffering in T.S. Eliot’s Preludes — the titles of two papers that are somehow still on my Google Drive. And truly, I’m okay with that. That’s because for most people, writing an essay is merely a task you complete in order to pass a class. But Lina Khan is not like most people. Ever since she penned [this 464 footnote-deep article]( in the Yale Law Journal in 2017, her sole calling has been to take down Amazon. And by the looks of it, she [seems]( to have done a pretty fab job today: In 2021, President Joe Biden [brought]( the then-32-year-old law scholar on board to chair the Federal Trade Commission. Everyone knew her goal: To expose Jeff Bezos’s behemoth as an unchecked monopoly that exercises power in a manner that extends well beyond the bounds of traditional antitrust law. Today [marks]( the culmination of Khan’s years-long investigation into the Everything Store. In a [complaint]( filed in federal court in Seattle, the FTC and 17 states accused Amazon of “engaging in a course of conduct to exclude rivals in online marketplace services and stifle competition.” It’s the fourth such case against Amazon this year, and it goes for the jugular, Dave Lee [writes](. Now, critics might call this Khan’s “Hail Mary” — she lost demoralizing cases involving mergers by Microsoft and Meta earlier this year. But Khan is attempting to turn “upside-down the establishment thinking on fair competition,” Dave argues. Maybe the haters are just — dare I say it — jealous? I mean, seriously: Not many people can say that the essay they wrote in college went on to be the foundational text for a landmark antitrust case against one of the most valuable companies in the world! Essentially, Khan wants to prove that Amazon’s dominant position is bad for your wallet. One way to do this would be to look at what Amazon does with third-party sellers, which accounts for around 60% of units sold on the site. I’ll walk you through the argument using Monopoly (the board game, duh) as an example. Let’s say you go on Amazon and search for it: First of all, none of these look like the original Monopoly. And four out of five options pictured are “sponsored,” which Dave says is by design: Being seen at all on Amazon’s store increasingly means paying for better placements, he writes. This makes sense, given that the third option isn’t even a game at all: It’s a gift card for Roblox! Soooo helpful, I know. Even after you find the product you want — let’s say it’s the $19.84 “Token Vote Edition” on the far-right — Amazon will continue to control the buying process. When you click “add to cart,” the company is yet again secretly prioritizing sellers. This time, it’s people who pay to store their goods in Amazon warehouses and use Amazon truck drivers. All told, around 50% of the money the seller gets from your Monopoly purchase will go directly into Amazon’s pocket. The company’s revenue from such methods has grown by 883% since 2015: Now, perhaps you’re thinking: Why don’t these guys just sell their stuff on the cheap elsewhere?? They can, but that would mean relinquishing the precious billing that Amazon gives them on its site. So “even though sellers might be able to sell products on competing marketplaces for less, they are heavily incentivized to keep prices [artificially high]( everywhere for fear of losing” that real estate. That’s how consumers lose, Dave explains. Read [the whole thing](. Bonus Monopoly Reading: Just as with retail, Amazon wants to be involved at every layer of the AI industry. It’s investment in [Anthropic]( is proof. — Dave Lee Slime Cups I want you to go to your kitchen and open the cabinet that stores all the plastic cups. I know you have one: Everyone does. There’s a cabinet for fancy glasses, the ones that you give to your guests when they come over. And then there’s the Other Cabinet, which has the cups you use to dye Easter eggs or warm milk up in. It’s an intimate space, I know. Almost more shameful than a junk drawer, I’d say. Mine has a Nalgene bottle from high school, a Pizza X [cup]( from college and an assortment of other random vessels that I don’t have time to go through here. Now that you’re standing at your own Cabinet of Shame, tell me if you, too, have a [Starbucks](-something-or-other [in there](. Maybe it’s one of those [city mugs](. Or a color-changing [travel cup](. Or, if you’re like me, it’s an iced-coffee tumbler that says “Stay Golden!” on it in rainbow letters. Tell me: When’s the last time you actually used your Starbucks cup? And I’m not talking about filling it with water and putting in on your nightstand. I’m talking about physically taking your Starbucks cup with you to the store, looking the barista in the eye and asking them to make your Venti-Almond-Carmel-Cold-Cream-Whatever drink in it. Chances are, you haven’t! And I’m not mad at you for that, I’m just being realistic here. Starbucks says it’s planning to [move away from using disposable cups]( by 2030. “All packaging will be reusable, recyclable or compostable by that date, although single-use vessels will still be available until a better long-term solution is found,” David Fickling [writes](. At the same time, the coffee company just released a lineup of “[hauntingly beautiful Halloween drinkware](,” including a glow-in-the-dark green slime [cup]( that’s selling [on Amazon]( for $83.99 (ugh), an iridescent skull mug and a pink pumpkin cup. But before you rush to add Cinderella's carriage to your collection, it’s worth considering a paradox, David says: “You may be better off, in environmental terms, getting your cappuccino in standard disposable paperboard.” You see, all reusable products have a “breakeven point” — the number of times you have to use your tote bag or mug or cloth napkin before it becomes better for the environment than the disposable alternative. But that point is often not reached by consumers, especially with products that have seasonal branding. “If you buy an iridescent Halloween-themed venti cup and use it for four weeks in October before switching to one with fir trees and reindeer in time for Christmas, you may not be shrinking your carbon footprint at all,” he concludes. That feels slimy, indeed. Crash Course “There are a number of cultural, societal issues and civil rights issues that people are looking at in this race. And that at the end of the day may matter even more than the economy." Peggy Collins Washington bureau chief of Bloomberg News On the [latest episode]( of Crash Course, Timothy L. O'Brien [speaks]( with our Washington bureau chief about what voters should expect to see as the 2024 presidential race intensifies. Telltale Charts Here’s a question for you: Do you think there should be a maximum age limit for elected officials? If you answered yes, congrats! Around 77% of people agree with you — at least, those who were surveyed in [this CBS poll](. There’s a general acceptance that people in government are getting crusty, like that weird sandwich you bought over the weekend that’s sitting in the back of your fridge. Sure, it’s still safe to eat, technically speaking, but it’s not in its prime anymore and it’s not giving you joy! You’d most certainly prefer something fresher. So, too, could this nation: Around half of America’s 2 million full-time federal employees will be eligible to retire at the end of 2030. At the same time, [only]( 14% of Gen Z is interested in jumping on the government-job bandwagon. “A shutdown certainly will not improve that number, and the fallout could well last long after Congress resolves the current funding crisis,” Max Stier [writes]( (free read!). Sometimes data can be confusing and dramatic, just like I was in middle school. Check out this chart, which shows how shelter inflation is at [HISTORIC]( extremes: And then look at this chart, which seems to show the exact opposite: Now, I could just leave you hanging with this head-scratcher and call it one life’s “cruel little mysteries.” Or I could be nice and tell you to read John Authers’s [explanation]( of why such statistics can be puzzling: “This disparity, as [discussed before in Points of Return](, stems in large part from the way that rental inflation is calculated. The index is built taking an average of all the leases currently in force. In any one month, most of those used for the calculation don’t change. Various private sector groups now produce indexes of rents based only on leases taken in the latest month. Zillow’s, perhaps the most widely cited, suggests that the peak came in the spring of last year, if anything slightly ahead of the index excluding shelter,” he writes. There’s a lag in the data, simply put, but it won’t make help you make your rent. Further Reading Europe needs a stronger and more coordinated [defense-industrial base](. — Bloomberg’s editorial board Gary Gensler wants hedge funds to remember that he's still [the sheriff]( of Wall Street. — Paul J. Davies New York isn’t using all of [its tools]( to try and solve the migrant crisis. — Eduardo Porter India’s [hyper-masculine national identity]( was forged out of old feelings of humiliation. — Pankaj Mishra European leaders got caught flat-footed by [a flood]( of asylum seekers. — Rachel Sanderson There's an obvious way Rishi Sunak [can fix]( inheritance taxes. — Merryn Somerset Webb Parents who constantly track their kids could be [hurting]( their mental health. — Lisa Jarvis Wagamama's parent company is slimming down. Is that an [acquisition]( I smell? — Matthew Brooker You’re [Invited](: [The Vibes and the Data Are STILL Out of Whack: What's Going On?]( Pssst! The economic vibes at the Federal Reserve are improving, but they still aren't as solid as the hard data. What's going on?! Join three of our Fed-whisperers — Claudia Sahm, Kyla Scanlon and Jonathan Levin — for a live discussion at 9 am Eastern tomorrow (9/27) on [YouTube]( or [X](. ICYMI Donald Trump was found [liable]( for fraud. Target is [closing]( some stores because of crime. Biden’s dog Commander [bit]( another agent. Kickers The best (fake) [steakhouse]( ever. [Toothpaste]( can be a cute souvenir. Iraq has an American-themed [buffet](. Notes: Please send toothpaste and feedback to Jessica Karl at jkarl9@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Threads](, [TikTok](, [Twitter](, [Instagram]( and [Facebook](. Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](. Want to sponsor this newsletter? [Get in touch here](. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Opinion Today newsletter. 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