Opinion: Lawmakers should not be swayed by Amazon’s investment in Iowa
Amazon recently announced that it will soon be bringing a new facility to Council Bluffs, marking yet another warehouse opened by the e-commerce platform in the Hawkeye State. Although Amazon might repeatedly try to entice state and local officials with the number of jobs it promises to create, lawmakers should be wary. It almost appears Amazon may be dangling investments to ensure that state leaders remain far away from antitrust enforcement.
In Iowa, Amazon has opened warehouses in Des Moines and Davenport. The state has also provided Amazon with over $18 million in subsidies in recent years, rewarding one of our nation’s most profitable companies with lucrative tax breaks. While lawmakers may view this exchange as beneficial for Iowa’s economic growth, research shows that’s not the case. A report by the Economic Policy Institute found the opposite —states have more to lose by offering Amazon tax incentives to bolster job creation.
One may wonder why Amazon continues to expand aggressively across Iowa, even though it already has a throng of fulfillment centers and distribution centers all over the state. Perhaps these facilities are nothing more than an effort to win over lawmakers given that antitrust enforcement is right on the horizon — particularly at the state level and particularly with respect to Big Tech companies like Amazon.
Nowadays, states are beginning to take notice of the dominant status obtained by leading technology firms, and are looking for ways to level the playing field for small businesses. In New York, the state senate recently passed a landmark antitrust bill that would prohibit the “abuse of dominance” by companies, and mandate greater transparency in transactions and mergers. Although it has yet to become law, the strong support for the bill demonstrates how states can begin to act on their own volitions to protect their constituents from the far-reaching power of tech companies.
With respect to Amazon, attorneys general across the country have begun to investigate the company for antitrust violations. Pennsylvania and Massachusetts are now reported to be collaborating with New York and California on probes into the tech giant. And in the District of Columbia, Attorney General Karl Racine has broadened his antitrust lawsuit against Amazon to address its agreements with wholesalers as well as third-party sellers.
While federal lawmakers have continued to look for ways to rein in Big Tech, Build Back Better and other competing priorities have instead remained top of mind for lawmakers. This is why it is all the more crucial for Iowa to step in and protect local businesses from dominant tech firms — and why Iowa lawmakers should not be won over by bold job promises and new warehouses.
State antitrust efforts are for good reason given the status reached by Amazon and other technology companies, and the sizeable impact these firms have on small businesses. For instance, a Wall Street Journal investigation found that the company mines data from individual sellers to create similar products under its own private label. Amazon has also done little to stop counterfeit products from appearing on its marketplace — which hinders sellers on its platform selling legitimate, safe merchandise.
With this in mind, there are many ways in which Des Moines can take necessary action and restore balance to Iowa’s economy. For instance, lawmakers can provide the Iowa attorney general’s office with additional resources to go after the largest monopolistic offenders. Lawmakers can also follow the lead of New York and begin to enact a similar “abuse of dominance” standard for Iowa’s antitrust laws — allowing state leaders to more easily challenge Big Tech’s domineering practices.
Amazon’s strategy to avoid scrutiny in Iowa is simple — pumping warehouses and hiring thousands of workers to curry favor with those in Des Moines. But this unspoken exchange between states and Amazon comes at a price to small businesses. Iowa lawmakers cannot fall prey to this misrepresented opportunity. Greater antitrust enforcement is desperately needed in Iowa — even if Amazon keeps trying to tell lawmakers otherwise.
Paul Rafelson is the executive director of the Online Merchants Guild, the largest network of small and micro e-commerce businesses nationwide.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Opinion: Don't be swayed by Amazon's spending in Iowa
