Even the DOJ website advises members of the public who want to make a complaint as follows:
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If you have information about a possible antitrust violation or potential anticompetitive activity, use the following questions as a guideline to describe your complaint:
What are the names of companies, individuals, or organizations that are involved?
How do you believe they have violated the federal antitrust laws? (For details on federal antitrust laws, see Antitrust Laws and You.)
Can you give examples of the conduct that you believe violates the antitrust laws? If so, please provide as much detail as possible.
What is the product or service affected by this conduct? Where is the product manufactured or sold, or where is the service provided?
Who are the major competitors that sell the product or provide the service?
What is your role in the situation in question?
Who is harmed by the alleged violations? How are they harmed?
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They further advise that they handle complaints as follows:
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The CCC creates a record of the information that you provided.
The CCC conducts a preliminary review of your complaint for possible antitrust violations.
If your complaint raises sufficient concern under the Federal antitrust laws, the CCC refers it to the appropriate Division legal staff where additional research may lead to a formal investigation into the reported conduct.
If the Division needs more information, we will contact you typically within one month of submitting your complaint. Due to the confidential nature of Division investigations, you will not be notified if we open an investigation.
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Admittedly most individual citizens would not engage lawyers and provide a full brief, but I'd be vary surprised if most larger businesses did not. As is clear from the above, even citizens complaining are expected to make their case.
I know nothing about your sister's work as a lawyer, how relevant it may or may not be or indeed the details of any discussion or discussions you may have had with her. With all respect to her and to you an appeal to her authority on this basis does not take us much further in this discussion.
POSTSCRIPT:
I searched the Passive Voice to see if PG, a lawyer, had any comment on this. PG's comment at the end of the extract from the article was:
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Passive Guy suspects the hand of News Corp in this editorial. As he has said before, the Apple/Price-fix Six collusion was a classic example of behavior prohibited under the antitrust laws.
Price-fixing is a violation of the antitrust law whether it’s directed at the corner bookstore or at Amazon.
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I was a bit disappointed that his comments shed no light on the question. However, I think the following extract from the comments makes the situation very clear:
Quote:
Patricia SierraSeptember 9, 2014 at 10:10 am
This is the second time recently that I’ve read that Amazon launched the antitrust lawsuit by presenting information to the DoJ. Is that really how it happened? Or did DoJ request info from Amazon? I’m in the dark about how the DoJ gets involved in suits like this. Are they always asked to pursue a case, or do they do it under their own steam?
Passive GuySeptember 9, 2014 at 11:46 am
The DOJ starts virtually every action it takes when it receives a report – FBI, private citizen, corporation, etc.
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