The District of Columbia sued Amazon on Tuesday, accusing the tech giant of behaving anti-competitively with sellers on its platform and thereby raising prices for consumers and stifling innovation.
Washington, D.C., Attorney General Karl Racine filed an antitrust suit against Amazon Tuesday, claiming that its terms and conditions prohibit third-party sellers from offering their products on other platforms for lower prices, which keeps prices inflated across the online marketplace.
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The higher price points, the suit claims, are caused by sellers incorporating Amazon’s third-party seller fees into the amount charged to customers.
“We filed this antitrust lawsuit to put an end to Amazon’s illegal control of prices across the online retail market,” Racine said in a conference call with reporters. “We need a fair online marketplace that expands options available to [District of Columbia] residents and promotes competition, innovation, and choice.”
Racine also said that Amazon is the world’s largest online retailer because it controls 50% to 70% of all online market sales.
Racine said he is not currently working with any state or federal officials on the lawsuit, and the suit does not allege that Amazon has violated any federal antitrust law.
Amazon pushed back against the lawsuit, claiming that it was not unfair to give certain sellers less prominent placement on their website or ban sellers based on its “Fair Pricing Policy.”
“The D.C. Attorney general has it exactly backwards — sellers set their own prices for the products they offer in our store,” Amazon said in a statement Tuesday.
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“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.”
