The Attorney General of Washington Carl Rasin (Karl Racine) announced the applied to the Court of Antimonopoly Claim against Amazon. In his opinion, the company’s policy contributes to higher prices for consumers, writes CNBC.
The reason for the claim was the price agreements, which in fact do not allow the company’s partners to sell goods on other sites at a lower cost. Racin requires not only the cessation of such practice, but also imposing a fine on a retailer.
Before March 2019, the company directly prohibited customers to establish lower prices in other places for sale of goods. However, growing antimonopoly control made Amazon change tactics. Instead of a direct ban, new conditions allowed the retailer to introduce sanctions on those partners who trade at a discount on competitors sites.
In the autumn of last year, the Subcommittee of the House of Representatives on Antimonopoly Legislation presented a report of more than 400 pages about AMAZON actions. Its authors agreed that the company uses its dominant position in the market and presses on third-party vendors.
Acts against Amazon is filed a few months against similar lawsuits to Google and Facebook. However, if several states participated in those statements, then in this case, only Washington became its author. As Rasin pointed out, the claim to Amazon is different, so the departments of one state is enough.
Earlier it was reported that over the past fiscal year (ended March 31) Amazon received a net profit of $ 26.9 billion. Such a sum has become a historical record for the company, it is more than a profit over the past three years together.