California AG Bonta claims Amazon was fixing prices, forced retailers to price coordination: “Intimidation and illegality”
Sacramento, California – California Attorney General Rob Bonta is seeking a state court to weigh in right away and stop what he calls Amazon’s widespread price-fixing operation that has raised prices for customers.
The request is part of California’s continuing case, which began in 2022. In that instance, the state said that Amazon utilized unfair business practices to keep prices high and keep costs low across the board. Bonta argues that after a long discovery process, new data shows a clearer and more alarming picture of how the company allegedly ran its business.
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The filing says that Amazon contacted sellers over and over again and told them to either raise prices on other retail platforms or take their products off those sites completely. Vendors who resisted were allegedly threatened with serious consequences. Many people did what Amazon wanted because they were afraid of losing access to the platform or being punished in other ways. In some cases, the competing retailer knew about the price hike or helped it happen.
Bonta says that this behavior was not casual or indirect. Instead, he describes explicit agreements to increase retail prices, all aimed at protecting Amazon’s profit margins and ensuring that consumers could not find lower prices elsewhere. He claims that the corporation tried to stop real price competition while claiming to be the cheapest alternative at a time when many families are having trouble making ends meet.
“Amazon doesn’t have cheap prices because of its good business sense. Amazon’s ‘cheap’ prices are the result of intimidation and illegality that drove up prices for consumers across the marketplace. My office has uncovered evidence that Amazon bullied vendors to hike up the price of their products sold at other shops, or secured the removal of these products altogether, to ensure Amazon was the cheapest place consumers could find products,” said Attorney General Bonta.
The state lays forth three main plans. In one case, when Amazon and a competitor were lowering one other’s pricing to match, one side would agree to raise the price or temporarily pull the goods through a shared seller, letting both sides match the higher amount. In another case, a competitor might raise its price at Amazon’s request if it offered a discount, which would allow Amazon to match the increase. In a third case, sellers would take down lower-priced listings from other platforms, making it easier for Amazon to hike its own prices.
Bonta wants the court to stop Amazon from making explicit agreements to fix prices, talking to vendors about how much their competitors charge, and forcing vendors to participate as middlemen in price coordination. This is part of the motion for a preliminary injunction. The broader lawsuit wants to stop the claimed unfair business practices and get money back for California consumers and the state’s economy. The trial is set to start in January 2027.
