The American Booksellers Association and other independent businesses and associations have declared Wednesday, March 20, "SBA: Dump Amazon" Day, to protest Amazon's continued co-sponsorship of National Small Business Week, which takes place April 28-May 4. The ABA and Small Business Rising have complained to the federal Small Business Administration, organizer of National Small Business Week, about Amazon's participation but say their protests have gone "unheeded."
On March 20, small businesses, entrepreneurs, and others aim to make "their voices heard, demanding that Administrator [Isabel] Guzman do the right thing and 'dump Amazon.' "
ABA CEO Allison Hill commented: "Over the past two decades, Amazon has grown a stranglehold on the book industry and crushed healthy competition in the marketplace for small business. It is preposterous that a government agency charged with assisting and protecting the interests of small business concerns and preserving free competitive enterprise would select Amazon as a co-sponsor of National Small Business Week--a disconnect heightened by the Federal Trade Commission's simultaneous lawsuit against Amazon for illegally maintaining monopoly power. Granting Amazon the opportunity of sponsorship allows it to whitewash anti-competitive behavior and the harm its doing to small business while forcing small businesses to engage with their biggest threat to accept this opportunity. Enough is enough."
David Grogan, director of advocacy and public policy at the ABA, added: "National Small Business Week is meant to be a celebration of small businesses. So we find it a bit ironic and troubling that the week is co-sponsored by Amazon--a huge corporation currently being sued by the Federal Trade Commission and 17 state Attorneys General for alleged antitrust violations that the FTC claims have severely harmed small businesses. Certainly, booksellers have been impacted by Amazon's anti-competitive tactics perhaps more than any other businesses. For the SBA to enter into a partnership with Amazon (and other huge corporate sponsors) for the week dedicated to small business is simply a slap in the face of every small business in the country."