Date: December 19, 2018
Contact: mediacenter@freeandfairmarketsinitiative.org
They Said It!
NYC Council Member: Amazon HQ2 “Race To The Bottom” Was About Data To Use In “Future Siting Decisions”
Amazon given unfair leg up to use proprietary information for “future siting decisions”
New York City Council Member Brad Lander: “[Given that Amazon] Conducted a bidding process that was a race to the bottom of 238 cities. Giving you all this data you could use in future siting decisions, required the 20 finalists to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Hiding the information about our bids from members of the public and their elected officials. And, are choosing to go along with avoiding New York city’s democratic land use review process.
How can we possibly believe that Amazon will not continue to abuse its monopoly power to erode our Democratic capacity? To govern our city?” (The New York City Council, “Oversight – Amazon HQ2 Oversight – Stage 1: Exposing the Closed-Door Process,” 12.12.18)
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ABOUT THE FREE & FAIR MARKETS INITIATIVE
The Free & Fair Markets Initiative (FFMI) is a non-profit coalition of businesses, consumer advocacy groups, workers and community activists committed to scrutinizing and highlighting emerging market trends that are stifling competition and innovation, influencing federal and local government spending, putting consumer data in harm’s way and limiting consumer choice. For a list of members, please visit https://freeandfairmarketsinitiative.org/about-us/members/. For more information on the Free & Fair Markets Initiative, please visit https://freeandfairmarketsinitiative.org.
