DC’s antitrust case against Amazon comes back to life

An appeals court has heard an antitrust complaint filed against Amazon by the Washington, D.C., attorney general more than three years ago, and the online retailer now faces charges that it illegally raised prices for consumers.

The complaint was originally filed citing 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 punish companies that offered its products at lower prices on non-Amazon platforms. Karl Racine, the attorney general at the time, said those agreements allowed the company “to impose an artificially high floor price across the entire online retail marketplace.” Racine later expanded the case to include Amazon’s pricing tactics for wholesalers.

Amazon contested those allegations and the case was dismissed in 2022. But an appeals court has now reversed that decision. “Viewed as a whole, the District’s allegations about Amazon’s market share and its continued market power through the challenged agreements plausibly suggest that Amazon already possesses monopoly power in online marketplaces or is close to a ‘dangerous likelihood of achieving monopoly power,’” the judge wrote.

The reversal adds to Amazon’s antitrust troubles. The company is also facing lawsuits from the Federal Trade Commission and more than a dozen states. The U.K.’s antitrust regulator has also opened an investigation into the company’s $4 billion investment in Anthropic.

In a statement, current District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb noted that the district “was the first jurisdiction to take antitrust action” against the company. “Now our case will move forward, and we will continue to fight to end Amazon’s unfair and illegal practices that have raised prices for consumers in the District and stifled innovation and choice in online retail.”

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.