Stacy Mitchell

1. Boy, Amazon is in a heap of trouble. Evidence made public today by California AG @AGRobBonta shows blatant price fixing. And there are so many examples. Here's Amazon scheming with a pet food supplier to get Chewy to raise its prices.

The fact that Paramount is big enough that they think a threat to boycott California would scare their AG into not suing to stop their merger…is not helpful in their argument that their market power post-merger won’t be a problem! semafor.com/article/07/12/…

Great reporting from Karl Bode and my colleague Sean Gonsalves @ilsr in @verge theverge.com/policy/953944/…

Amid all the corruption, this is especially gross: the billions Congress/Biden approved to build fiber internet in places left behind has been redirected to Elon Musk & Jeff Bezos for doing nothing. Musk has pocketed $738 million so far. Places like rural Louisiana were screwed.

The Supreme Court’s recent decisions should be understood as part of a broader, ongoing attack by the Court on the ability of Congress to govern. When our least accountable branch of government is systematically undermining our most accountable branch of government, it is a recipe for entrenched minority rule and oligarchy.

"Amazon’s decision shocked the filmmakers... The streaming giant had already tested the movie in four markets... Mike Hopkins, the head of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, made the decision... As part of Amazon’s investment into OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company agreed to use chips designed by Amazon. OpenAI also has a deal to use Amazon’s cloud computing services." nytimes.com/2026/06/19/bus…

I guess it's good we still have independent film studios because Amazon won't let you make films critical of Sam Altman. variety.com/2026/film/glob…

Live Nation tried to take over Portland Maine's music scene but was trounced by a grassroots anti-monopoly campaign. Here's @grahamformaine talking with the folks at @maine_music about the campaign & why it worked. So happy @ilsr was able to help. youtu.be/LqDILnV4Hjo?si…

It’s important to understand that the Court is now just an arm of the oligarchy. This decision strips the people of the right to limit the role of money in politics. It gives billionaires special rights to buy our elections. A precondition of oligarchy.

Very happy to have written a piece for @TheSlingUtah on how Google's AI Overview draws on the works built up across the open web to answer users' queries—without royalty, without consent in any meaningful sense, and increasingly without even a click. For two decades, the open web ran on a simple bargain: publishers create, Google indexes and ranks it, and in return publishers get traffic. It was never equal—Google captured the advertising value of search while sending only traffic. But it was a bargain, and it sustained an entire ecosystem of publishing on a thin margin.

@NoMoreBikeLanes ilsr.org/article/indepe…

@NoMoreBikeLanes I'd encourage you to read our work to understand how these companies operate and who they hurt. Dollar stores are often viewed as a symptom of economic distress; we found they are a cause of it: ilsr.org/article/indepe…

For years, the drug chains were in a real estate arms race, overbuilding everywhere. Now the cost of that is coming due: Dollar General is taking over empty Rite Aids, a move that bypasses planning review. Our country, overrun with predatory dollar stores, will be even more so.

You have to put the Fed ruling alongside the FTC ruling. That's when the Court's bias becomes clear

@jeetsidhu_ More here: ilsr.org/independent-bu…

@jeetsidhu_ We have a lot of resources on this topic, but this is probably the best place to start: ilsr.org/article/indepe…

Yes, states do the chartering. But it used to be that corporations were chartered for a limited period of time, like 10 or 20 years, to do a defined activity, like build and operate a bridge. In the latter part of the 19th century that sprawled into perpetual corporations that can extend into whatever area they want. Hence the need for expert agencies that are set up to do day-to-day oversight and rule-making, which Congress can’t do. And state agencies are challenged to do because of interstate commerce.

@stacyfmitchell Isn't that why corporations are chartered by the states?

If we’re eliminating Congress’s authority to set up independent agencies based on some (half-baked) theory that the Constitution did not grant that power, then we should also eliminate the perpetual corporate charter. That too didn’t exist and wasn’t provided for.

"The White House involvement... illustrates tech giants’ ability to leverage their alliances with President Donald Trump’s administration, even under intense scrutiny from lawmakers and courts about their platforms’ impact on society." politico.com/news/2026/06/2…

Walmart, Albertsons, and 7-Eleven used AI software to raise gas prices. Just how much tech-enabled price-fixing is hidden across the economy? Good news is that California has a new law on pricing algorithms & now a class-action antitrust case is moving. popular.info/p/gas-stations…

Full statement here: ilsr.org/article/indepe…

@kennedysmith with our statement:

Big chains like Walmart have long used restrictive covenants to keep competitors from opening on vacant sites. Terrific to see Rhode Island bar this tactic. Next step to solve food deserts: pass Matos' bill requiring suppliers to give local grocers the same prices as the chains.