“Fair Trade provides the archetype for “relational” chains, where buyer/supplier cooperation and power sharing prevail” —Laura T. Raynolds
Amazon owns their own publishing service called AmazonEncore, while controlling the sale of all books through their website. Also, many other publishers rely on Amazon for sales, which in turn puts them at the mercy of Amazon. Amazon’s competitors also rely on their successful online retail service to sell
products, which gives Amazon an unfair advantage over their competitors and puts them in a position of power over the whole industry. The publishers will go out of business if they do not sell books online with Amazon. AmazonEncore is in direct competition with the publishers who rely on Amazons online retail service. This gives Amazon the edge over everyone else in the industry and creates a conflict of interest. The leverage Amazon has over their competition goes against fair trade, which is one of the key aspects of a capitalistic society.
Raynolds, Laura T. “Mainstreaming Fair Trade Coffee: From Partnership to Traceability.” vol. 37, no. 6, June 2009, pp. 1083–1093. World Development, doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2008.10.001.
Amazon is a Monopoly 