California Accuses Amazon of Price Fixing in Legal Filing

Amazon engaged in price fixing by pressuring major brands like Levi’s and Hanes to ask competing retailers to raise prices on certain products, according to a newly unsealed filing released Monday in a California antitrust lawsuit against the e-commerce giant.

California sued Amazon in San Francisco Superior Court in 2022 over allegations the retailer harms competition and increases prices that consumers pay online. The lawsuit, which is scheduled to go to trial next year, claimed Amazon punished sellers on its marketplace for offering lower prices on other websites, like those of Walmart or Target.

Now, the state is providing more details on ways Amazon pressured brands to urge other retailers to increase prices. In the 16-page filing, Amazon asked the brands to get involved when it spotted a competitor’s lower price or was losing money selling an item. As a result of the pressure, rival sites raised their prices for the products, the state said.

“You don’t see price fixing so explicitly and egregiously in writing like this,” California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, said in an interview.

The newly unsealed filing offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at how Amazon operates its $2.66 trillion empire. The Seattle company has long maintained that it prioritizes offering customers the lowest price. But it has faced more scrutiny from regulators, who have argued that the company’s policies harmed online competition and inflated consumer costs.

The Federal Trade Commission and 17 states sued Amazon in 2023, accusing the company of illegally maintaining a monopoly in online retail by squeezing merchants who sell on its site and prioritizing its own products. Those actions resulted in “artificially higher prices,” according to the government’s suit.