Attorney General Karl Racine said Amazon requires third
party sellers to give its customers the same or better prices than they offer
elsewhere.
But since Amazon's prices include fees, which can run as
high as 40 percent of the total price, Racine said the policy could make prices
for the same product more expensive on platforms that compete with Amazon.
The legal action is the latest of multiple state and federal
suits filed against the largest tech companies in an effort to limit alleged
abuses of their outsized market power.
Amazon disagreed with the lawsuit, saying its policies were
aimed at keeping prices low.
"The DC attorney general has it exactly backwards –
sellers set their own prices for the products they offer in our store. Amazon
takes pride in the fact that we offer low prices across the broadest selection,
and like any store we reserve the right not to highlight offers to customers
that are not priced competitively," an Amazon spokesperson said in a
statement.
The company's share price dipped on news of the lawsuit but
quickly recovered.
The lawsuit, which was filed in D.C. Superior Court, put
Amazon's share of the U.S. online retail sales market at between 50% and 70%.
"Amazon has used its dominant position in the online
retail market to win at all costs. It maximizes its profits at the expense of
third-party sellers and consumers, while harming competition," Racine said
in a statement.
The four big tech companies - Amazon.com, Facebook,
Alphabet's Google and Apple - have spent more than a year under antitrust
scrutiny.
The U.S. Justice Department sued Google late last year
alleging violations of antitrust law, as did two groups of states. Facebook was
sued by the Federal Trade Commission and a group of states. -Reuters
0 comments:
Post a Comment