DC’s antitrust case against Amazon comes back to life

The appeals court has an antitrust lawsuit against Amazon filed by the Washington, D.C., Attorney General more than three years ago. The online retailer now faces accusations that it illegally raised prices for consumers.

The lawsuit was originally filed against Amazon’s practices related to third-party sellers on its platform. Specifically, it cited a provision in the company’s agreements with third-party sellers that allowed it to penalize companies that offered its products at lower prices on non-Amazon platforms. Karl Racine, then the attorney general, said that the agreements allowed the company to “impose artificially high floor prices in the online retail marketplace.” Racine later added that the case involved Amazon’s pricing tactics for wholesalers.

Amazon disputed those allegations, and the case was dismissed in 2022. But an appeals court has now reversed that decision. “Taken as a whole, the District’s allegations about Amazon’s market share and the maintenance of its market position through the challenged agreements credibly suggest that Amazon either already has a monopoly in online marketplaces or is approaching a ‘dangerous likelihood of achieving a monopoly,’” the judge wrote.

The reversal deepens Amazon’s antitrust woes. The company also faces legal action from the Federal Trade Commission and more than a dozen states. The U.K.’s antitrust regulator also opened a center around the company’s $4 billion investment in Anthropic.

In a statement, current D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb noted that the district “was the first jurisdiction to bring antitrust enforcement action” against the company. “Now, our case will proceed, and we will continue to fight to stop Amazon’s unfair and unlawful practices that have raised prices for District consumers and limited innovation and choice in online commerce.”

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.