Even before the pandemic Amazon’s aggressive pricing strategies made it difficult for smaller companies to compete. This is exacerbated by the fact that the company does not pay enough back to the state. In 2018 it paid £14.3m in corporation tax on £13.7bn in UK revenues. Without shops on the high street, it pays less in business rates than more traditional competitors such as Tesco.It is an intolerable situation that a company that depends on the public services run by the state does not pay an appropriate level of taxes. To add insult to injury, this week it was reported that Amazon will also not be paying Britain’s new digital services tax because the US won’t do a trade deal if the UK were to impose such a levy. Instead small traders and advertisers using the site will be taxed. The issue is one of fairness, and making sure big tech is taxed properly needs urgent government attention.

Amazon’s dominance means it already has too much sway in many marketplaces. This is a matter of political choice. We have to make different choices. The bigger Amazon becomes, the more it will be able to manipulate the tax, data, employment and consumer regulatory frameworks to its advantage. Governments must ensure fair levels of scrutiny, taxation and competition and let Amazon be in the spotlight for all the right reasons.