California authorities unsealed a trove of internal Amazon communications Monday that paint a damning picture of coordinated price-fixing across the e-commerce giant's platform, according to newly disclosed court documents in an ongoing antitrust case.
The messages, which had been heavily redacted until now, show Amazon employees repeatedly instructing vendors to raise prices on everything from pet treats to khaki pants, then notifying competitors like Walmart and Chewy to follow suit. In one striking example, Amazon directed a pet treat manufacturer to increase prices on specific products, telling the vendor: "As you noted, Chewy should be aware of this update and follow suit accordingly."
Two days later, the manufacturer's own employee confirmed the scheme was working. "The prices that went up on Amazon immediately went up on Chewy," the staffer wrote, complete with a smiley face emoji.
The Levi's case is equally brazen. Amazon flagged Dockers khaki pants sold by Walmart as "styles of concern" because the big box retailer was undercutting the online giant's prices. Within hours, Levi's reported back that Walmart had agreed to raise the price to $29.99. Amazon then matched that higher price, effectively locking in a floor that benefited the company while extracting more money from consumers.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed the motion containing these exhibits in February as part of his push to halt what he describes as systematic price-fixing. "The evidence uncovered today is clear as day: Amazon is working to make your life more unaffordable," Bonta said in a statement. "The company is price fixing, colluding with vendors and other retailers to raise costs for Americans beyond what the market requires."
Bonta's 2022 lawsuit contends that Amazon has effectively "cowed" online vendors into maintaining artificially high prices across rival platforms. By creating this price floor, the theory goes, Amazon can claim its own prices are competitive while squeezing consumers and suffocating genuine price competition.
Amazon pushed back hard, calling the filing a "transparent attempt to distract from the weakness of its case." The company noted that Bonta had sat on these same emails for years before releasing them. "Amazon is consistently identified as America's lowest-priced online retailer, and we're proud of the low prices customers find when shopping in our store," a spokesperson said.
The e-commerce giant has maintained throughout the litigation that its practices actually promote competition. In previous court filings, Amazon called the state's core allegations "entirely false and misguided."
Walmart declined to comment on the lawsuit but said it "will always work hard on behalf of our customers to keep our prices low." Levi's and Chewy, neither of which are defendants in the case, did not respond to requests for comment.
The trial is scheduled to begin January 19, 2027. This disclosure follows similar revelations last week from separate court documents, in which smaller vendors described how Amazon's tactics forced them to raise their own prices.
Author James Rodriguez: "These emails are the kind of smoking gun that makes price-fixing cases stick, and Amazon's 'lowest-priced retailer' defense is going to ring hollow once a jury sees vendors openly gloating about price hikes rolling out in sync."
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