Survey: Small Businesses Rank Monopoly Power as Top Threat

Apr 02 2022 April 2, 2022 April 2, 2022 No Comment by Mike Callicrate

Posted in Daily

Survey: Small Businesses Rank Monopoly Power as Top Threat

MARCH 30, 2022

We surveyed over 900 small, independent businesses across the U.S. and asked about the challenges they face and the policies they believe would improve their survival. Topping the list of threats were three issues that all have to do with concentrated market power and monopolistic tactics — competitors strongarming suppliers, Amazon’s control over the online marketplace, and big competitors selling goods and services below cost.

The policies that topped the list included breaking up Amazon and ending corporate subsidies and tax breaks. Read the 2022 Independent Business Survey: Top Challenges and Policy Priorities. We also asked a subset of Amazon sellers about their experiences — check out the Snapshot of Amazon Marketplace Sellers.

FEATURES

MARCH 24, 2022

For more than 40 years, public policy has actively encouraged the growth of megacorporations whose power threatens to eclipse that of government itself. Yet today’s growing antimonopoly movement offers a promising path for uniting small businesses with workers and building the political will for change. In a feature article for The Forge, Stacy Mitchell charts the course for seizing this moment — including deep, strategic organizing of small business, a pro-small business policy agenda, and effective small business messaging. These steps and more will build a “broad popular front capable of generating enough political will in Washington for policymakers to act.” Read the article here.

FEATURES

Statement on the Prohibiting Anticompetitive Mergers Act

MARCH 16, 2022

On March 16th, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Mondaire Jones (NY-17) introduced the Prohibiting Anticompetitive Mergers Act of 2022. This legislation would prohibit mega-mergers, and give the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice new tools to undo past mergers that violate antitrust law. In a statement, Stacy Mitchell said the bill “would put a stop to the avalanche of harmful mergers now underway and safeguard workers, independent businesses, and communities.” Read the full statement here.

WHAT WE’VE BEEN UP TO

In a Q&A with The Editorial Board, Stacy talked about Biden becoming a trustbuster. “Exploitation, coercion and extraction are the primary characteristics of our economy today,” she said. “It’s exactly why we need to resurrect antitrust.”

On the Federal Trade Commission declining to block Amazon’s acquisition of MGM, Stacy told the Washington Post, “The question is … what is the case that allows the FTC to get at the root of Amazon’s monopoly power, and whether this is the right case to do that."

“For a long time the narrative was that dollar stores locate in food deserts, but we have found that dollar stores actually create food deserts,” Kennedy Smith told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“The FTC for more than a generation has been the best friend of Pharmacy Benefit Managers,” Stacy explained in the Columbus Dispatch about why independent pharmacies keep closing. The FTC is “supposed to be the cop on the beat.”

Kennedy Smith’s Small Business’s Big Moment report is attracting both national and local coverage. The Non-Profit Quarterlyand local news outlets in Massachusetts and New York noted Kennedy’s optimistic and innovative recommendations.

ICYMI

In ILSR’s latest issue brief, Handcuffed by the Courts: How Judges Broke Our Monopoly Laws and What Congress Must do to Repair Them, Senior Researcher and Writer Ron Knox traverses the history of Supreme Court cases that upended U.S. antitrust laws and argues that Congress must take action to undo decades of bad judicial decisions. Read the issue brief.

NEWS STORIES WE’RE FOLLOWING

A council backed by tech giants claims to represent thousands of small business owners across the country — but many of those business owners said they never signed on and do not support Amazon and Google’s lobbying agenda.

The Seattle Times editorial board argues that, despite tech giants’ relentless campaigning, lawmakers must continue to support legislation that ensures fair competition and protects small businesses.

The Maine state Senate approved a bill that would limit big box chains’ ability to skirt their property tax assessments in ways that cost taxpayers thousands of dollars.

The dominant grocery chain Kroger has been underserving the West End neighborhood in Louisville, Ky. So a local activist launched a full-service grocery store and a local grocery delivery program in hopes of building a just, resilient food economy.

Once known as a city filled with chain restaurants, Cedar Rapids now leads Iowa for the most locally owned, independent restaurants.

From informing policymakers to shaping media coverage, ILSR’s research is
making an impact. Please help us work to create an economy that’s more
competitive, equitable, and prosperous by making a donation today.

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