(Reuters) – Amazon.com is shelving several private clothing brands in an attempt to reduce costs and address antitrust scrutiny, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
The move was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, which said the company has decided to eliminate 27 of its 30 in house-label clothing division, leaving it with just Amazon Essentials, Amazon Collection and Amazon Aware.
Amazon also is scrapping private-label furniture, phasing out its Rivet and Stone & Beam brands once their stock runs out, the report said.
“If there are products that aren’t resonating with customers we deprecate those items and look for other opportunities to better meet their needs,” Matt Taddy, Vice President of Amazon Private Brands, said in an email to Reuters.
The Journal had earlier reported that Amazon was discussing an exit from the private brands business as a concession to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) if the regulators filed a long-awaited antitrust lawsuit against the retailer.
The FTC began probing Amazon during the Trump administration when the government decided to investigate several big tech companies for allegedly breaking antitrust law.
Amazon has been criticized for allegedly favoring its own products and disfavoring outside sellers on its platform.
The company, which has denied any wrongdoing, is set to meet next week with the FTC to argue that the agency should not file an antitrust suit against the retailer, Reuters reported earlier this week.
(Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Shweta Agarwal and Arun Koyyur)
