Newly unsealed records reveal Amazon's price-fixing tactics, California attorney general claims

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Guardian

Thu 16 Apr 2026 17.58 EDT
First published on Thu 16 Apr 2026 15.38 EDT


Hundreds of previously redacted records reveal how Amazon has put pressure on independent sellers using its platform into raising their prices on the sites of competitors such as Walmart and Target, so that Amazon can appear to have lower prices, California authorities allege. The global conglomerate became concerned even if a competitor was selling an item for as little as a penny less, according to one segment of the newly unredacted evidence.

The documents – which have never previously been reported on – include internal emails, deposition testimony and confidential corporate presentations that the California attorney general, Rob Bonta, obtained as part of a civil case his office launched in 2022 accusing Amazon of large-scale price-fixing.

The Guardian obtained and reviewed the cache of evidence, which has been filed in San Francisco county superior court but has not yet become publicly available. Within the documents, lawyers for the state of California have unmasked key details, paragraphs and sometimes whole pages that had previously been blacked out. A judge permitted some redactions to remain at Amazon’s request.

In a statement, Bonta said the newly unveiled evidence reinforced his office’s claims that Amazon’s actions “unlawfully punishes sellers whose products are sold at lower prices by other online retailers”. “Especially while consumers face an affordability crisis, there is no room for illegal practices that impede competition and raise prices,” Bonta said. “California looks forward to our trial in January 2027.”

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/apr/16/amazon-price-fixing-california-lawsuit

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CA AG Bonta PRESS RELEASE - Attorney General Bonta Delivers Prime Victory Against Amazon in Ongoing Price Fixing Case

[multigraincracker]

1. Bust the Trust.

[Trueblue Texan]

2. Walmart does this everyday

I went in there the other day to buy a pair of cotton workout pants--I wouldn't go there but that's the only place I can buy these particular slacks. The sign on top of the rack said $12.98. The tag clearly said $10.98. I went through self checkout and sure enough, I was charged $12.98 despite the tag price of 10.98. Apparently they re-programmed the barcode to a higher price. I was in a hurry, as most of us are so I didn't stop to argue about it. I wonder how many millions of dollars they made daily by cheating people. I hate to go there and always do my best to avoid that place.

[orleans]

4. my local grocery store - jewel (a part of albertsons i think) was upping prices at the check out all the

fucking time.
i always went thru a check out with a cashier, never thought i'd do self checkout.
but...
i couldn't keep up with the cashier b/c they rang everything through so quickly and i'd still be putting my crap up on the belt. but i'd get home and notice i'd been screwed out of fifty cents, a dollar, etc. just with their little price fucking.

after a year i'd had enough. now i do self check out all the damn time, i write the shelf prices down on a piece of paper as i'm shopping and more than half the time i'm calling someone over to adjust the price. sometimes they check but mostly they just believe me since i've been doing it for so long and every time they checked it turned out i was right.

it just pisses me off that the store is so deceptive.

yesterday i was buying sour cream. it rang up on sale for .30 off. but the sign in the cooler showed it was .50 off. so i called someone over, told her, she looked it up on her phone/ap/whatever and nope, just .30 cents off. i said nope -- the sign said .50 and i showed her the price i had written down on my paper. so she went all the way to the back of the store. she returned with the tag from the cooler, said i was right, corrected the error in the checkout, and said she tore the tag down since it was put in the computer differently.

[ck4829]

3. Kick