The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has filed a long-awaited lawsuit against Amazon.com, accusing the online retailer of harming consumers by increasing prices. This is the latest legal action taken by the U.S. Government to break Big Tech’s internet dominance.

After years of complaints, the lawsuit was expected. Amazon.com and others tech giants had abused their dominance in search, social media, and online retailing for the purpose of becoming gatekeepers on the most lucrative aspects the internet.

The lawsuit was filed by 17 attorneys general in response to a four-year federal investigation and lawsuits against Alphabet’s Google and Meta Platforms’ Facebook.

The FTC and state partners said that Amazon’s actions allowed it to prevent rivals and vendors from lowering their prices, degrade the quality of goods for customers, overcharge sellers and stifle innovations, according to a statement.

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The FTC stated that it would ask the court for a permanent injunction to order Amazon.com stop its illegal conduct.

The FTC stated that Amazon, which was founded in 1994, and is worth over $1 trillion, punishes sellers who offer lower prices than Amazon by making it hard for consumers to locate the seller on Amazon’s platform.

Amazon is also accused of giving preference to its products over those of competitors on its platform.

FTC Chair Lina K Khan wrote, as a law student for the “Yale Law Journal”, about Amazon.com’s dominance of online retailing. She was also on the House Committee that drafted a 2020 report that recommended reining in the four tech giants, Amazon.com. Apple, Google, and Facebook.

Democrats and Republicans both agree that it is time to act against Big Tech. During the Trump Administration, which ended in 2021 the Justice Department opened investigations into Google, Facebook Apple and Amazon.

The Justice Department sued Google twice, once during the Republican Donald Trump administration regarding its search technology and again since Democratic President Joe Biden assumed office. The FTC filed a lawsuit against Facebook under the Trump administration, and Biden’s FTC is continuing the suit.