Amazon’s Shift to Profit-Driven Dominance: Rising Fees, Biased Algorithms, and Regulatory Challenges in E-Commerce

The Enshittification Dilemma: Amazon and the Erosion of Digital Trust

In the lexicon of digital commerce, few terms have captured the zeitgeist with as much raw clarity as “enshittification.” Coined by author and activist Cory Doctorow, it describes the slow rot that overtakes once-innovative platforms as they pivot from serving users to maximizing profits—often at the expense of both consumers and independent sellers. The saga of Amazon, once lauded as a paragon of customer-centric innovation, now stands as a vivid case study in this corrosive metamorphosis.

Amazon’s Flywheel: From Customer Obsession to Market Entrapment

Amazon’s early years were defined by a relentless commitment to low prices, vast selection, and frictionless logistics. The company’s famed “flywheel” strategy—a virtuous cycle where lower prices and better service attracted more customers, which in turn attracted more sellers and drove further efficiencies—became a business school staple. Yet, as Amazon’s gravitational pull intensified, so too did its capacity to dictate terms.

Today, the platform’s dominance is wielded through complex algorithms and contractual levers that tilt the playing field. Independent merchants, once the lifeblood of Amazon’s marketplace, now find themselves ensnared by most-favored-nation clauses and opaque ranking systems. Search results prioritize Amazon’s private-label goods or those of favored partners, while fees for sellers quietly climb. The net effect is a subtle but relentless erosion of value for both buyers and sellers—an evolution that mirrors the monopolistic playbooks of industrial giants past.

The Marketplace at Risk: Competition, Consumers, and the Cost of Convenience

The consequences extend well beyond Amazon’s balance sheet. As the company consolidates its position, the broader e-commerce ecosystem warps around its orbit. Competition is stifled as rivals struggle to match Amazon’s scale and data-driven precision, while independent sellers—often small businesses—face increasingly asymmetric relationships. The promise of the internet as a democratizing force for commerce is undermined by the reality of a single platform setting the rules.

For consumers, the transformation is equally fraught. The initial bounty of choice and convenience is gradually replaced by higher prices, lower-quality goods, and diminished transparency. When algorithms are tuned to maximize profit rather than surface the best products, trust in the marketplace falters. The ethical stakes are high: digital platforms that once empowered users now risk becoming engines of manipulation, where agency is traded for convenience and loyalty is leveraged as a captive audience.

Regulatory Reckoning: Navigating the New Digital Monopolies

This unraveling has not gone unnoticed by regulators. Across the United States and European Union, lawmakers are grappling with the outsized influence of digital titans. Doctorow’s prescription—ranging from curbing predatory pricing to structurally separating marketplace and retail operations—echoes in policy debates from Brussels to Washington. Yet, the regulatory challenge is formidable: how to restrain monopoly power without smothering the innovation that made these platforms indispensable in the first place.

The geopolitical dimension adds further complexity. As American tech giants extend their reach across borders, questions of digital sovereignty and national regulatory capacity loom large. Countries seeking to safeguard local commerce must weigh the benefits of global platforms against the risks of ceding economic and cultural autonomy.

Ethics and the Future of Digital Platforms

Beneath the economic and regulatory calculations lies a deeper ethical reckoning. The enshittification of digital platforms is not merely a business issue; it is a societal one. When technology’s promise is subordinated to profit, the social contract between platform and user frays. The manipulation of search results, the imposition of hidden costs, and the erosion of user agency signal a misalignment between technological advancement and the public good.

The debate over Amazon’s transformation is thus a proxy for larger questions about the future of the digital economy. Can platforms be held accountable to the communities they serve? Will regulatory and ethical frameworks evolve to restore balance and trust? The answers will shape not only the fate of e-commerce but the very character of the digital age—an era where the stakes for fairness, transparency, and human agency have never been higher.