Judge greenlights FTC’s antitrust suit against Amazon

A federal judge gave the Federal Trade Commission the green light to pursue antitrust claims against Amazon, a newly unsealed order reveals, though some claims under state laws won’t move forward. Amazon filed a motion to dismiss the 2023 lawsuit, which alleges the company illegally maintains a monopoly by punishing sellers who discount products outside…

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Amazon dodges antitrust scrutiny in UK over Anthropic investment

The U.K.s’ antitrust authority has concluded that Amazon’s partnership and equity investment in AI startup Anthropic can’t be investigated under current merger rules due to the size and scope of the deal. The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) announcement comes six months to the day after news emerged that Amazon had completed a $4…

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Amazon must recall dangerous products properly — even ones sold by third-parties

Amazon, not third-party sellers, is responsible for properly recalling hazardous items that were sold on its marketplace, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) decided on Tuesday. The CPSC says Amazon failed to adequately notify the public about more than 400,000 recalled products. Even though Amazon stopped selling those products and attempted to alert their…

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Amazon is discontinuing my favorite Echo — the Echo Dot with Clock

I have six Amazon Echo smart speakers in my house, and I’ve tested more, but my favorite is the Echo Dot with Clock. I love how the fabric-covered LED dot matrix display makes time unobtrusively accessible, beaming its gentle white light from my dresser across my blackout-curtained dark bedroom. (It definitely beats asking Alexa the…

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Amazon hires founders away from AI startup Adept

Adept, a startup developing AI-powered “agents” to complete various software-based tasks, has agreed to license its tech to Amazon and the startup’s co-founders and portions of its team have joined the ecommerce giant. Geekwire’s Taylor Soper first reported the news. According to Soper, Adept co-founder and CEO David Luan will join Amazon, along with Adept…

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Amazon retaliated after employee walkout over the return-to-office policy, NLRB lawyers say

In February 2023, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy sent an email to the company’s staff outlining new return-to-work guidelines. Previously, individual teams within the company could decide where employees were expected to work, but Jassy’s email revealed that starting on May 1st, 2023, most Amazon employees were expected to work from the office at least three…

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