*“Amazon’s annual investor meeting will highlight the ways that Amazon is now fully able to flex its monopoly power to maximize profit for investors across several lines of business. This short term, maximalist approach is enriching the company to the detriment of its own products, our economy, and the planet.

Unfortunately, investors concerned with long-term sustainability, human rights, and worker wellbeing have been sidelined and the company has lobbied its largest shareholders to evade accountability and transparency proposals.

Amazon’s big sources of profit are coming at a big cost and risk. We see three big trends. First, Amazon’s business model relies on squeezing small businesses with increasing fees, churning through its hourly workforce, and avoiding its climate responsibilities. Second, now that Amazon has a monopoly in multiple sectors, it can degrade its products with profitable advertising that relies on intrusive customer surveillance. Third, Amazon’s business model is facing unprecedented push back from its hourly and tech workers, who are speaking out at the meeting against some of the company’s most egregious practices, including: union busting, dangerous management practices, racial disparities, and the company’s refusal to review the human rights impacts of its contract with a rightwing Israeli government being charged with war crimes.

While Amazon’s business model has benefited investors in the short-term, there are long term consequences: among these, the company is now under multiple investigations for breaking labor and antitrust laws. And, the corporation is flouting laws and regulation against the backdrop of a strengthened regulatory regime: the Federal Trade Commission is investigating its Cloud “partnerships,” Congress is considering a bipartisan privacy bill, state bills on clean energy requirements for data centers, a growing set of laws that protect warehouse workers, and widespread calls for AI regulation. While touting faster delivery times, increased sales, and rocketing stock prices, Amazon neglects to reflect on the fact that their business is facing more government scrutiny, worker organizing, and public discontent more than ever before.”*