Last week's release by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) of a less-redacted complaint against Amazon, in essence quantifying the degree to which the company has allowed the customer experience to be degraded in favor of advertising revenue, prompts me to offer several responses. One, these are allegations, as yet unproven. Two, context is important. Three, I'm not sure these actions are illegal. And four, they seem credible because they reflect what I think is an increasingly common shopper experience on Amazon. All of which add up to what I think is an important lesson for Amazon's competitors (which, let's face it, is pretty much everyone).
