Elizabeth Warren doubles down on Amazon for \'crushing\' small businesses

Elizabeth WarrenSen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) speaks at the NAN Conference on April 5, 2019 in New York City.Hollis Johnson/Business Insider

Sen. Elizabeth Warren is doubling down on her mission to break up big tech. 

On Tuesday, Warren, who is running for president in the 2020 election, called out Amazon in a town hall speech, accusing the retail giant of using data that it collects from sellers and buyers to create its own private label products. The term private label refers to products sold under various brands belonging directly to Amazon. This practice would "knock out" the competition, Warren said. 

"Giant tech companies have too much power," Warren tweeted. "My plan to #BreakUpBigTech prevents corporations like Amazon from knocking out the rest of the competition. You can be an umpire, or you can be a player-but you can't be both."

Amazon made a rare public response to her comments on Twitter later that day, saying that it does not use individual sellers' data to launch its own private label products. A spokesperson for Amazon did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment. 

 

Warren responded again, writing on Twitter: "When Amazon can tilt the online marketplace in its own favor, small businesses see an immediate impact in their profits. That can be absolutely crushing, it's not fair, and I'm fighting to end that."

 

Amazon has come under scrutiny in the past for its role as both a direct seller and a platform for other merchants to sell to those same customers. Bloomberg reported in 2016 that Amazon had been using sellers' data to create its own versions of best-selling items. It is under an initial probe by European regulators for its role as both direct seller and merchant platform as of December 2018, and may face a full investigation.

Warren has been hot on big tech for some time. In March, she announced her plan to break up some of the largest US tech companies, including Facebook, Google, and Amazon. In this proposal, she called out Amazon's Marketplace for third-party sellers and said it would "be split apart" from its private label "Basics" offering. 

Amazon has argued that external sellers perform better than its own brands. Amazon Marketplace has been outpacing Amazon's direct sales for years, and this area of the business now accounts for more than half of Amazon's total sales on its website.

"Third-party sellers are kicking our first party butt," CEO Jeff Bezos wrote in the company's annual letter to shareholders in April.

Amazon's own private-label offering still accounts for a small part of its total business; roughly 1% of the company's total retail sales, according to a company spokesperson. However, it is making moves to grow this and has significantly increased the number of private-label brands available in recent years.

According to estimates from investment company SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Amazon's private-label business could generate $25 billion by 2022.

"Private label is one of the highly under-appreciated trends within Amazon, in our view, which over time should give the company a strong 'unfair' competitive advantage," the company wrote in a note in June. 

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