> it's a market-maker that provides a venue for other vendors to sell stuffThat's not what a market maker is. A market maker is a market participant that guarantees to buy or sell something if no other buyer or seller can be found.
Providing a venue for others to sell stuff is a straightforward market transaction: Amazon sells its services to others for a price. There's nothing special about it, and standard Hayekian economics accounts for it just fine.
> Amazon doesn't set prices per se
To the extent this is true (as you say, for vendors that are not itself), it just reinforces the point I made above: that what Amazon is doing as a "marketplace as a service" is just a straightforward market transaction, selling services for a price, and does not give Amazon any sort of special status.
> Amazon is running a marketplace, not (just) being a vendor.
Running a marketplace, if it does not mean being a monopolist (which you are insisting it does not), is being a vendor, a vendor of particular services.
That's not what a market maker is. A market maker is a market participant that guarantees to buy or sell something if no other buyer or seller can be found.
Providing a venue for others to sell stuff is a straightforward market transaction: Amazon sells its services to others for a price. There's nothing special about it, and standard Hayekian economics accounts for it just fine.
> Amazon doesn't set prices per se
To the extent this is true (as you say, for vendors that are not itself), it just reinforces the point I made above: that what Amazon is doing as a "marketplace as a service" is just a straightforward market transaction, selling services for a price, and does not give Amazon any sort of special status.
> Amazon is running a marketplace, not (just) being a vendor.
Running a marketplace, if it does not mean being a monopolist (which you are insisting it does not), is being a vendor, a vendor of particular services.