Amazon as the infrastructure of power and the end of the free market

Fundacja Dobre Państwo • January 18, 2026 • 🇵🇱 Polski

Introduction

Amazon is redefining the market as a nervous system, where it controls the central infrastructure, reducing other players to the role of peripheral cells. It is not merely a store, but a powerful feedback device that builds a new ontology of power through the accumulation of data and logistics. This article analyzes how the e-commerce giant shapes the rules of access and visibility, deconstructing the myth of platform neutrality. Readers will learn why traditional antitrust law fails and what prostheses of reason might restore market autonomy.

Lina Khan: The Structural Paradigm Replaces Pricing

Lina Khan’s revolution lies in shifting the focus from consumer prices to market architecture. Amazon utilizes a flywheel mechanism, where a wider selection attracts customers, who in turn attract more sellers, lowering costs and tightening the loop of dominance. Competition becomes a war of ecosystems, where profits from one segment (e.g., the cloud) subsidize losses in another. A growth over profit strategy allows the platform to endure unprofitability longer than its rivals until their collapse becomes inevitable.

Watering the Flowers: Relational Corruption and the Day 1 Doctrine

The Watering the Flowers technique is a form of relational lobbying that feeds politicians selected data, creating a cognitive loop of dependency. Inside the company, the Day 1 doctrine prevails—a state of permanent mobilization where stability is equated with death. The stack ranking system introduces social Darwinism, forcing employees to compete for image rather than merit. This organizational culture normalizes permanent overload, transforming humans into a constant energy reserve for the algorithm.

Amazon as a Quasi-Institution: A New Infrastructure of Power

Low prices are a consumer smokescreen, hiding data cannibalism. By analyzing seller strategies, Amazon copies their products, acting simultaneously as both referee and player. As a quasi-institution, the platform becomes an essential infrastructure, which forces the consideration of three regulatory scenarios: behavioral containment, surgical separation of functions, or recognition as critical infrastructure under state supervision. The conflict between the roles of referee and player is structural and requires a hard systemic separation.

Prostheses of Reason: Tools for Controlling Digital Hegemony

The EU vs. USA model reveals a civilizational difference: Europe protects labor from algorithmic management and dehumanization. To curb hegemony, prostheses of reason are needed: an institutional separation of roles, regulation of data status as a public good, and new antitrust tests examining the total transactional burden. Amazon poses a question: can we create institutions that restrain the predatory appetite of platforms before they consume the remnants of autonomy and innovation? Consumer convenience must not serve as a veil for systemic inequality.

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Summary

This article examines Amazon's transformation from a global marketplace into a powerful infrastructure of power that effectively dismantles traditional free market mechanisms. The author details the "flywheel" strategy and the "Day 1" doctrine, presenting them as tools of permanent mobilization and market domination. Building on Lina Khan's groundbreaking analysis, the article highlights the need to revise antitrust law, which has failed to keep pace with the architecture of digital ecosystems. The work examines phenomena such as information rent, forced ranking, and the behavioral subjugation of users. In conclusion, the author raises questions about the future of Big Tech regulation, suggesting the recognition of the largest platforms as critical infrastructure and the introduction of a strict separation of commercial and logistical functions, aimed at restoring market equilibrium and protecting democratic values in the digital economy.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Amazon's antitrust paradox?

It involves the company keeping prices low for consumers, which traditionally excludes the accusation of a monopoly, while at the same time destroying the market structure and making all other players dependent on it.

What is the Day 1 doctrine in corporate culture?

It is a philosophy of permanent mobilization that treats every day as the beginning of a startup, which in practice serves to normalize constant pressure and prevent stagnation at the expense of employee well-being.

How does Amazon use third-party seller data?

Amazon analyzes the margins and success of independent sellers as free market research, allowing it to introduce its own competitive products with minimal risk.

What are the main scenarios for future Amazon regulation?

The text points to three paths: mitigation of specific practices (behavioral), forced separation of platform functions from sales, and recognition of the company as regulated critical infrastructure.

What does the referee and player metaphor mean in the context of platforms?

It refers to a situation in which Amazon simultaneously sets the rules for visibility and rankings in the marketplace (as a judge) and competes with other sellers in it (as a competitor).