Amazon coerced Levi's, Hanes, big brands to inflate product prices on rival retail websites: Antitrust lawsuit filing
American e-commerce giant Amazon coerced prominent brands, including Levi’s Strauss and Hanes, into an alleged price-fixing scheme wherein they agreed to raise prices of their goods on competing retail websites operated by Walmart, Target Corp, Home Depot, etc., according to court documents seen by Bloomberg.
The filing is part of California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s 2022 antitrust lawsuit, which alleged that Amazon artificially inflated the cost of products to shield its profit margins.
The lawsuit, scheduled for trial in January next year, is one of the several antitrust cases against Amazon. Interestingly, the retail giant captures about 40 cents of every dollar spent online in the US.
Increasing prices for rival retailers
“Time and again, across years and product categories, Amazon reaches out to its vendors and instructs them to ‘fix’ retail prices on competitors’ websites, threatening dire consequences if vendors do not comply,” observed an unredacted court filing made public on Monday.
According to the filing, there were more than 15 instances where Amazon employees contacted suppliers when they saw lower prices on competing websites, including Best Buy and Newegg Commerce. It details Amazon’s campaign to ensure it had the best prices on a wide range of products, including Levi’s khaki pants, Hanes apparel, bar stools, fertilizer, eye drops, portable generators and guitar audio equipment.
“Amazon provides exact details of its competitors’ prices and directly asks vendors to ‘look into’ getting the competitors to increase their prices,” the complaint stated. Although there is no evidence of direct communication between Amazon and competing retailers, it did contact product suppliers and brands, which said rivals such as Walmart and Home Depot had agreed to update the prices of their products.
Amazon responds
In response to the court filing, Amazon spokesperson Mark Blafkin said: “The Attorney General’s motion is a transparent attempt to distract from the weakness of its case, coming more than three years after filing its complaint and based on supposedly ‘new’ evidence it has had for years.”
The antitrust case is being closely watched as it may lead to a forced breakup of Amazon’s retail business. The unsealed California motion stated that the evidence reveals conduct egregious enough for a court to temporarily block the behaviour pending the outcome of the trial. The next hearing is scheduled for July at the state’s request.
About the Author
For about a decade, Livemint—News Desk has been a credible source for authentic and timely news, and well-researched analysis on national news, business, personal finance, corporates, politics and geopolitics. We bring the latest updates on all the listed companies on BSE and NSE, startups, mutual funds, Union ministries, geopolitics, and untapped human interest stories from around the world, helping our readers to stay informed on the latest developments around the globe. Our Coverage Areas 1. Companies: Comprehensive news and analysis on listed and unlisted companies, corporate announcements, corporate chatter, C-suite, business trends, hiring alerts, layoffs, work-life balance, world's top billionaires and richest and more. 2. Personal finance: Insights into mutual funds, small savings schemes like - PPF, SSY, post office savings scheme, stock to watch, personal loans, credit cards, top bank FDs, real estate, income tax and more. 3. Politics: Comprehensive coverage of general elections, state elections and bypolls, Lok Sabha, Vidhan Sabha, Parliament, PMO, PIB, finance ministry, home ministry, among other union ministries and government departments. 4. National News: From metro cities like Delhi, Mumbai, and e to untapped stories from rural India, we cover human interest, health, education, crime and courts, and law and order, among other areas of public interest. 5. Economy: In-depth analysis of India's macro and micro-economic indicators like- GDP, inflation, forex, fiscal deficit, current account deficit, interest rate cycle, economic recovery, RBI circulars, indirect taxes, GST, Insolvency and Bankruptcy imports, exports and everything that impacts Indian economy. 6. Geopolitics: Well-rounded and deeply researched coverage on US News, Oval Office European Union, Ukraine Russia War, middle-east crisis, royal families and global leaders like - Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, Xi Jinping and premiers of other leading economies in the world. Meet the Team 1. Gulam Jeelani, Political Affairs Editor 2. Sugam Singhal, Senior Assistant Editor 3. Chanchal, Assistant Editor 4. Sanchari Ghosh, Chief Content Producer 5. Pratik Prashant Mukane, Chief Content Producer 6. Sayantani Biswas, Chief Content Producer 7. Ravi Hari, Deputy Chief Content Producer 8. Garvit Bhirani, Deputy Chief Content Producer 9. Akriti Anand, Senior Content Producer 10. Jocelyn Felix Fernandes, Senior Content Producer 11. Swastika Das Sharma, Content Producer 12. Mausam Jha, Content Producer 13. Riya R Alex, Trainee Content Producer
Catch all the Business News , Corporate news , Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
Wait for it…
Oops! Looks like you have exceeded the limit to bookmark the image. Remove some to bookmark this image.