This week, Meta celebrated a legal win in a case filed by the Federal Trade Commission over five years ago, which was dismissed in 2021 and subsequently refiled under the Biden-appointed chairwoman Lina Khan.
The decision represents a much-needed reversal of the irresponsible antitrust activism that ran rampant during the Biden administration and a win for the more investment-friendly, pro-innovation economic approach championed by President Donald Trump. The Trump administration should build from this decision and reconsider another Biden-era leftover: the FTC’s pending case against Amazon.
The FTC’s lawsuit against Amazon, launched in September 2023, paints a dark picture of the internet’s “wide-open frontier” now supposedly “enclosed” by a “single company.” It’s a gloomy take — not to mention one fully divorced from reality — that couldn’t be further from the Trump administration’s dynamic and innovation-driven perspective on the modern economy.
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Khan essentially wore blinders in cognizing how startups and small businesses operate. Entrepreneurs don’t rely on a single storefront or marketplace. They reach customers through a mix of digital tools, platforms, and in-person sales channels. Amazon is one of many parts of the ecosystem, offering tools and services that have helped fuel innovation and growth across the economy.
Today’s small businesses utilize many different sales channels. Omni-channel has become the norm. In fact, 91% of small businesses use multiple sales channels to reach customers, according to the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council’s recent survey. Nearly 1 in 3 added a new channel in just the past year, underscoring how quickly entrepreneurs are adapting and expanding their reach. The Data Catalyst Institute echoes this trend, finding that most small online sellers use a variety of methods to sell their products, with more than 4 in 5 operating on multiple platforms — an average of four at once, but also selling offline via their storefronts, other stores, and in-person events, such as farmers’ markets and pop-up shops.
Small businesses are thriving both offline and online and are not being held captive by a single channel. Nearly half of small business owners who sell online report that e-commerce and social platforms now account for more than 20% of their total sales. Entrepreneurs are succeeding by meeting consumers wherever they choose to shop.
More channels and options are opening all the time. In August, Best Buy launched a new third-party marketplace, signaling that the retail world is not settling into a static landscape. Every new marketplace launch creates another avenue for small businesses to reach customers. Moreover, 33% of small businesses currently use TikTok to market and sell goods and services, according to the SBE Council’s October 2025 check-up and technology use survey, up from 17% in September 2023. The FTC’s case against Amazon overlooks these ever-changing and dynamic realities.
Marketplaces are leveling the playing field, giving small sellers access to logistics, advertising, and customer reach once reserved for big brands. Again, the choice in platforms — Walmart, Shopify, Amazon, eBay, TikTok Shop, and Facebook Marketplace — is helping entrepreneurs promote and grow their businesses, with more than three-quarters of small and medium-sized business leaders reporting tangible benefits, according to the Small Business Roundtable and Morning Consult’s Main Street to Marketplace report. E-commerce is also opening doors beyond the digital realm: a TechNet-Ipsos study found that 79% of respondents agreed that online sales have created opportunities to get their products onto physical store shelves.
These findings paint a clear picture: The marketplace model isn’t trapping sellers; it’s empowering them.
For small businesses that sell on Amazon, the platform is more than just another sales channel — it’s a growth engine. Nearly half of Amazon sellers report higher profit margins than in other channels, according to SBE Council research, and 92% say Amazon’s pricing is fair. The value proposition is clear: small businesses choose Amazon due to its massive marketplace opportunity and the support provided in reaching and servicing customers.
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The FTC, under Khan, ignored market dynamism and seller sentiment. The Amazon case is emblematic of the Biden-era approach to successful private sector activity: the pursuit of ideological crusades regardless of market realities and unproven harm to consumers. It’s this same playbook that is now set to run rampant in Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s New York City.
Policymakers must recognize the dynamism of today’s retail economy and let innovation and choice, not intervention, continue to drive small business success. Working to break up Amazon’s marketplace and logistics services will only fuel uncertainty, hamper innovation, raise costs, and limit opportunities for small businesses. The Trump FTC should settle Khan’s crusade against Amazon once and for all.
Karen Kerrigan is the president and CEO of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council.
