Pierre Omidyar made billions by founding the e-commerce giant eBay in 1995. Three decades later, Omidyar still relies on the online marketplace for a considerable share of his wealth and influence. Now, the billionaire is sponsoring a well-publicized conference headlined by individuals who have frequently attacked one of eBay’s primary competitors: Amazon.
The Omidyar Network, a giant in the left-of-center fundraising world, is listed as one of the sponsors of the annual “Anti-Monopoly Summit.” The summit’s headliners include the likes of former Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan, American Prospect executive editor David Dayen, former Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division Jonathan Kanter, and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), all of whom, among many others slated to be in attendance, have histories of advocating antitrust enforcement against Amazon.
Both Omidyar’s personal wealth and his political influence would stand to gain from antitrust enforcement against Amazon.
Democracy Fund, one of the primary arms of Omidyar’s philanthropic empire, has an endowment filled with eBay stock, tax filings show. As eBay’s stock price climbs, so does the power of Omidyar’s nonprofit advocacy operation. Further, documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2020 indicated that Omidyar held 23 million shares in eBay at the time.
Khan, who is set to give the summit’s keynote address, made a name for herself in the Biden administration through her antitrust crusade against Big Tech. Notable actions taken by Kahn against Amazon during her time at the FTC included a high-profile lawsuit alleging that the company’s online marketplace used its alleged monopoly status to harm small businesses, another lawsuit against purportedly unfair Prime subscription practices, and a wide range of public criticism aimed at the tech and e-commerce giant.
After graduating from law school, Khan secured a job as the legal director at the Open Markets Institute, an organization that is both funded by Omidyar and has sought to bring antitrust enforcement against Amazon.
Other speakers at the Anti-Monopoly Summit who have been critical of Amazon include conservative journalist Saagar Enjeti, Former Acting Assistant Attorney General of the DOJ’s Antitrust Division Doha Mekki, former Federal Trade Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya, comedian Adam Conover, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), American Economic Liberties Project executive director Nidhi Hegde, Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI), Sen. Corey Booker (D-NJ), Fordham University professor Zephyr Teachout, and former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra.
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In addition to directly sponsoring the Anti-Monopoly Summit, Omidyar also funds several of the other organizations sponsoring the event, many of which are themselves critical of Amazon. The American Economic Liberties Project and Demand Progress, two of the summit’s other sponsors, received $250,000 and $445,000 from Omidyar, respectively, in recent years.
Omidyar’s potentially self-empowering anti-monopoly crusade extends well beyond a single conference. The Omidyar Network’s mission statement, in fact, is to “bend the arc of the digital revolution toward shared power, prosperity, and possibility.” In service of this aspiration, the Omidyar Network’s latest tax forms reported over $29 million in grants to other organizations.
In addition to tech-related grants, Omidyar’s philanthropic network also disburses significant funds to left-of-center voter mobilization efforts, nonprofit media outlets, and efforts to oppose President Donald Trump.
The Omidyar Network did not respond to a request for comment.