California Files Suit Against Amazon Over ‘Anticompetitive’ Merchant Contracts – CNET [CNET]
Amazon merchants are “coerced” into agreeing to terms that severely penalize them if they offer goods for less on other sites like eBay or Target, California Attorney General Rob Bonta alleged in a statement. Bonta alleged it’s a violation of the state’s Unfair Competition Law and Cartwright Act.
Prices would be lower, Bonta alleged, “if market forces were left unconstrained.”
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The company has 160 million Prime members in the US and around 25 million customers in California alone, according to the California Attorney General’s office. In addition, Amazon has numerous offices in Southern California, committing to leasing nearly 440,000 square feet of commercial space in Santa Monica, Irvine and San Diego.
A 2021 antitrust case against Amazon was dismissed, but that ruling is being appealed. A class action suit alleging the company is violating the Sherman Act and other antitrust laws is currently before a federal judge in Washington State.