Internal emails show how Amazon raises prices across the Internet, lawsuit says
Ars Technica • • business
Key Points:
- Newly unsealed emails reveal allegations from California Attorney General Rob Bonta that Amazon colludes with rivals to raise prices on a wide range of products by coordinating price increases and pressuring vendors.
- The lawsuit, filed in 2022, accuses Amazon of using its market power to coerce vendors into raising prices on competitor sites or removing cheaper products, with emails showing Amazon employees coordinating these schemes.
- Three main tactics are described: mutual price matching to raise prices, pressuring rivals to increase prices first before Amazon matches, and forcing vendors to remove products from lower-priced platforms to avoid price competition.
- Some price hikes were timed around major sales events like Prime Day and Black Friday, with Amazon allegedly threatening to delist products if vendors did not comply with price increase demands.
- Amazon denies wrongdoing, calling the evidence old and exaggerated, while Bonta argues the emails provide clear proof of explicit price-fixing harming consumers and seeks a preliminary injunction to halt these practices during the ongoing trial.
