Amazon appears to be getting hit with another lawsuit over anti-trust allegations, with the DC Court of Appeals reviving a years-old case against the online merchant. Back in 2021, then-DC Attorney General Karl Racine filed a lawsuit against Amazon for allegedly violating anti-trust laws. The allegations revolved around Amazon preventing sellers from offering cheaper prices on products outside of Amazon.
The case didn’t go too far as it was thrown out just one year later. However, that case went to the DC Court of Appeals and it’s now being revived. The current DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb says “DC residents deserve fair prices, competition, innovation, and choice.” Implying that Amazon is stifling all of those things. It’s an interesting turn of events considering the case was tossed out in court in 2022. But, perhaps not too surprising.
The DC anti-trust lawsuit against Amazon echoes parts of the FTC lawsuit
This is hardly the first big case against Amazon for alleged anti-trust practices. In fact, the FTC filed a lawsuit against Amazon back in 2023 for alleged anti-trust violations. While the particulars of that case were not all the same as the one from the DC lawsuit, some parts overlap. In the FTC case, Amazon was accused of preventing sellers from offering lower prices on goods if they sold those goods on Amazon.
According to the allegations, sellers who had products listed on Amazon weren’t allowed to offer those products at prices that were lower than the listings on Amazon. This included their own store websites. The DC Court of Appeals case is stating the very same thing. Amazon’s case against the FTC is still ongoing. Alleging that the online shopping giant not only prevents sellers from offering lower prices on products but also that the company harshly punishes sellers who don’t adhere to the pricing rule.
Additional allegations stated that Amazon increased fees for sellers. Specifically to nearly half of every dollar made. But only if that seller used Amazon’s fulfillment service. Yet another allegation claimed that Amazon was using a tool called Project Nessie. This tool was supposedly used to monitor pricing spikes and trends across other retailers. In doing so, it could raise prices to see if other retailers would follow suit. It would then immediately lower its own prices if they did.
Amazon “already has monopoly power over online marketplaces or is close to achieving it”
Since the case against Amazon in the DC Court of Appeals has just been brought back, there’s likely to be a long road ahead. There’s so far no mention of where the case will go from here. That includes whether or not it will actually go to court.
However, that seems like a very real possibility. The DC Court of Appeals said in its lawsuit that the initial allegations “plausibly suggest that Amazon already has monopoly power over online marketplaces or is close to achieving it.” Naturally, Amazon is going to fight this ruling and has already provided a statement. Speaking to The Verge, Amazon spokesperson Tim Doyle said “Just like any store owner who wouldn’t want to promote a bad deal to their customers, we don’t highlight or promote offers that are not competitively priced.”
In addition to these two larger cases, Amazon is also facing a class-action lawsuit over Prime Video.
2024-08-23 15:10:23