A group of authors, booksellers, and an antitrust think tank claims Amazon is harming the bookselling industry.
Article from The Verge. I'm not surprised to see people mad at Amazon, though I'm surprised it took this long.
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The Authors Guild, American Booksellers Association, and Open Markets Institute... accuse Amazon of dominating “almost every aspect of the book market,” citing data that the company sells over 50 percent of all physical books in the retail market, 90 percent of physical books sold online, and over 80 percent of all ebooks on the market.
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For me what's always seemed most likely to cause them trouble was the exclusivity they force on small fry authors, but not larger, more known authors in Kindle Unlimited. And the fact that they are also a publisher who doesn't share their titles with other booksellers.
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“Amazon has an oversized power to control what readers see when browsing for books. Only Amazon understands how its algorithm works,” the letter reads. “Amazon can up-rank and down-rank titles at a whim. As Amazon steers readers towards its own titles and away from rivals, many readers end up buying books that are less relevant, less interesting, or of lower quality than had they been able to choose in an open and competitive market.”
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Personally, I haven't found that to be the case with books, but have noticed it when searching for other items.