California Attorney General Unveils Amazon Price-Fixing Allegations in Court Filing
California authorities have released previously redacted emails that allegedly show Amazon colluding with other companies to artificially inflate prices on various consumer products. The documents, unveiled on Monday by Attorney General Rob Bonta, form a crucial part of an ongoing antitrust battle against the e-commerce giant.
Specific Allegations of Price Coordination
According to the newly unsealed court filing, Amazon employees repeatedly worked with vendors using its platform to push retail competitors including Walmart and Chewy to collectively set higher prices. In one particularly detailed case, Amazon allegedly raised prices on a specific set of dog treats and collaborated with a pet treat manufacturer to convince Chewy, the pet supplies retailer, to follow its increases.
"As you noted, Chewy should be aware of this update and follow suit accordingly," Amazon reportedly emailed the manufacturer along with a list of products experiencing price increases. Two days later, according to Bonta's office, the manufacturer confirmed in an internal message that the price raise had been implemented on both sites, with an employee noting: "The prices that went up on Amazon immediately went up on Chewy."
Additional Examples of Alleged Collusion
In another documented instance, Amazon sent links to Levi's showing Dockers khaki pants being sold by Walmart at lower prices, describing them as "styles of concern." The next day, state officials allege that Levi's reported back to Amazon that it had spoken with Walmart and that the big box chain had "partnered with us" to raise the khakis price to "$29.99 immediately."
Following this communication, Amazon notified Levi's that it would also update its price to $29.99, several dollars higher than its previous selling price for the pants. These coordinated actions, according to the attorney general's office, demonstrate a pattern of anti-competitive behavior designed to maintain artificial price floors across multiple retail platforms.
Official Statements and Legal Responses
"The evidence uncovered today is clear as day: Amazon is working to make your life more unaffordable," Bonta declared in an official statement. "The company is price fixing, colluding with vendors and other retailers to raise costs for Americans beyond what the market requires – beyond what is fair."
Amazon responded forcefully to these allegations, with a company spokesperson characterizing the attorney general's filing as "a transparent attempt to distract from the weakness of its case." The spokesperson noted that the filing came more than three years after the initial complaint and was based on supposedly "new" evidence that authorities had possessed for years.
"Amazon is consistently identified as America's lowest-priced online retailer, and we're proud of the low prices customers find when shopping in our store," the company stated. "Amazon looks forward to responding in court at the appropriate time."
Broader Context of the Antitrust Lawsuit
Amazon provided the newly unsealed records to Bonta's office as part of an antitrust lawsuit originally launched in 2022. The lawsuit alleges that the tech giant has "cowed" online vendors, who depend on Amazon's dominant e-commerce platform, into hiking their prices on competing websites such as Walmart and Target.
By maintaining this artificial price floor, Bonta contends that Amazon has preserved the appearance of competitive pricing while actually heading off robust competition and extracting more money from consumers. The attorney general's trial against Amazon is currently scheduled to begin on January 19, 2027.
Recent Developments and Related Revelations
The recently unsealed examples were part of a motion that the California attorney general submitted to a judge in February seeking an injunction to stop Amazon's alleged price-fixing tactics. This follows last week's Guardian report on a separate collection of recently unsealed documents from the same court case, which included testimony from smaller companies alleging that Amazon's tactics had forced them to increase their prices.
It is important to note that Walmart, Levi's, and Chewy are not defendants in the attorney general's case against Amazon. When contacted for comment, Levi's and Chewy did not respond, while a Walmart spokesperson declined to comment on the litigation but emphasized that the company "will always work hard on behalf of our customers to keep our prices low."
Amazon has not yet filed its formal response to this specific court filing, which remained heavily redacted until this week's disclosure. In response to Bonta's original lawsuit, the tech giant has consistently asserted that its practices promote, incentivize, and reward healthy market competition, previously declaring in a court filing that the state's core allegations are "entirely false and misguided."
