New Lawsuit Claims Amazon Involved Unfair Pricing Practices
A lawsuit filed against Amazon claims that the online retailer doesn’t allow third-party sellers to market lower prices on other websites in violation of antitrust laws.
Plaintiffs are Deborah Frame-Wilson and Christian Sabol, regular shoppers of online items such as household goods, children’s toys and children’s clothing.
The lawsuit says that prices at different online stores are comparable to Amazon’s pricing, when taking shipping into account. This is allegedly due to Amazon’s anti-competitive policies that prevent the item from being offered at a lower market price elsewhere.
A third-party seller registers with the Amazon marketplace, they must agree with the terms of the Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement (BSA) and the policies that are inherent in the agreement. Until March 2019, when FTC opened an investigation, the agreement prohibited third-party sellers from marketing their products at a lower price on other online platforms, according to the plaintiffs.
The lawsuit says that Amazon is still continuing this practice under the “fair pricing” provision, which notes that any single item must have a price that is equal or lesser to the price of the same item being sold on other online marketplaces.
Lawsuit Details
The Amazon Antitrust Class Action Lawsuit is Frame-Wilson, et al. v. Amazon.com Inc., Case No. 2:20-cv-00424, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.
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Given how large and dominant Amazon has become as the largest online retailer, I hope Amazon is forced to stop this anti-competitive practice (if true).