FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Virgil McDill, vmcdill@ilsr.org, 202.294.9187
Small Business Rising Response to Amazon Statement on Antitrust Bills
“Amazon executives are panicking because they know these bills will break the company's stranglehold on small businesses”
WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 22, 2021) - In response to an Amazon statement opposing the push for sweeping antitrust reforms in Congress, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance released the following statement from Co-Director Stacy Mitchell and Doug Mrdeza, the Chief Executive Officer of Top Shelf Brands, a barber supply company and Amazon third-party seller:
Stacy Mitchell, Co-Director, Institute for Local Self-Reliance:
“Amazon executives are panicking because they know these bills will break the company's stranglehold on small businesses and consumers, and force it to compete on a level playing field. These bills are the result of an extensive, 15-month long investigation that demonstrated beyond a doubt that Amazon used its monopoly power to unfairly advantage its own products and line its pockets with seller fees at the expense of entrepreneurs and innovation.
By breaking up Amazon, we can end these abuses once and for all and restore vital dynamism and innovation to the economy."
Doug Mrdeza, CEO, Top Shelf Brands, and a member of the Small Business Rising coalition:
“Amazon likes to say that it’s helping small businesses, but as someone who’s experienced the hardship and pain that comes with trying to do business on Amazon, I can tell you that the opposite is true.
I built a company that was a top seller on Amazon, employed more than 40 people and was named as one of America’s fastest growing companies. But Amazon began forcing us to accept ever-higher fees that cut into our revenue and new conditions that made it hard to grow our business - everything from higher charges for warehouse space to unilaterally changing our advertising approach. Today, I’m the single remaining employee at my company, drowned in debt I personally guaranteed.
I know I’m far from the only business owner to have this experience. In fact, the overwhelming majority of third-party sellers say that Amazon is a threat to their business. It’s why we badly need to pass legislation that would curb Amazon’s power - and it’s why we should be deeply skeptical of Amazon when they say they support small businesses.”
Earlier this week, ILSR released a fact sheet explaining how Amazon exploits and undermines small businesses, including survey data that shows three out of four of independent retailers ranked Amazon’s dominance as a major threat to their survival, and only 11 percent of those selling on its site described their experience as successful.
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