California Claims Amazon Punishes Sellers for Lower Prices on Other Sites

Amazon pressures sellers using its platform to raise their prices on competitors’ websites if those prices are even a penny lower than Amazon’s, The Guardian reported Thursday (April 16), citing California authorities’ comments on newly unsealed records that were filed as part of an antitrust battle between the retailer and the state.

The documents have not yet been made publicly available, according to the report. They were obtained as part of a civil case filed by California in 2022, alleging that Amazon engages in price fixing, per the report.

According to the report, documents show that one seller testified that Amazon stopped making one of his products a featured item in the retailer’s Buy Box because that product was a cent cheaper on Walmart; another seller said that a product that had been “suppressed” by Amazon was reinstated to the Buy Box after he raised the price on Wayfair; and an Amazon engineer said the company uses Buy Box suppression to discourage sellers from using Temu.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta told The Guardian that these documents reinforce the state’s claims that Amazon “unfairly punishes sellers whose products are sold at lower prices by other online retailers.”

Amazon said in a statement provided to The Guardian that its practices promote competition and that the company works to provide customers with low prices and a quality customer experience.

“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,” the company said, per the report. “It’s part of our commitment to featuring low prices to earn and maintain customer trust.”

When Bonta filed the antitrust lawsuit in September 2022, he said that Amazon has policies that prohibit merchants from selling products at lower prices on other online platforms or their personal websites and that there was ample evidence indicating the company’s practices lead to consumers paying more for various products.

On Thursday, it was reported that a California court ruled that key factual disputes must be resolved before the case can proceed, which denied Amazon an early victory in the antitrust case. The court found that there were too many unresolved factual disagreements about whether the company’s policy promotes competition or suppresses it, per the report.

A preliminary injunction is set to be heard in July, and trial is set for January 2027, according to a Thursday press release from the State of California Department of Justice.