California sues Amazon, alleging antitrust violations 
California sued Amazon on Wednesday, accusing the company of pushing sellers and suppliers into anticompetitive deals that lead to higher prices, including at rival online stores.
The lawsuit, filed by state Attorney General Rob Bonta, focuses on the way Amazon — the largest online retailer — deals with third-party merchants, who account for most of the sales on the platform.
California alleges that Amazon penalizes sellers and suppliers that offer cheaper prices elsewhere on the internet, including Walmart and Target, for example by displaying their items lower or less prominently or outright blocking their new postings.
"Amazon makes consumers think they are getting the lowest prices possible," the lawsuit alleges, "when in fact, they cannot get the low prices that would prevail in a freely competitive market because Amazon has coerced and induced its third-party sellers and wholesale suppliers to enter into anticompetitive agreements on price."
California's antitrust lawsuit is among the biggest legal challenges to Amazon in recent years, as lawmakers and regulators in the U.S. and abroad have investigated the retail giant for potential anticompetitive practices.
Amazon has denied any antitrust violations. Its representatives did not immediately comment on Tuesday's lawsuit.
California also accuses Amazon of creating a "vicious anticompetitive cycle": Sellers view Amazon as a must; Amazon charges them higher fees to be able to sell on its platform; Sellers, in turn, raise their Amazon prices. And, even though it costs them less to sell on other websites, Amazon's policies push sellers to raise prices on those sites, too.
"Through its illegal actions, the, quote, "everything store" has effectively set a price floor, costing Californians more for just about everything," Bonta said at a press conference on Wednesday.
Earlier this year, a judge dismissed a similar lawsuit that was filed in Washington, D.C., though the city's attorney general has appealed.
In that case, Amazon argued its deals with merchants were meant to prevent shoppers from being overcharged, and punishing Amazon would hurt consumers.
Amazon has separately proposed a settlement with European antitrust regulators, who charged the company with violating competition laws. Their key allegations accused the company of using data it collected from third-party sellers to its own benefit.
Editor's note: Amazon is among NPR's recent financial supporters.
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I don’t care if it’s 20% cheaper elsewhere. With Amazon I know it’s going to arrive on time, be easy to return, and don’t have to bother entering all of my info on a new site.
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Lol I've never had that work out for me, also all the counterfeits and used items are annoying af.
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I've gotten things early more often than on time. But yeah the counterfeits are horrible.
I mostly use Amazon for hard to find food and cheap generic clothes. Anything niche I use the specific website if possible.
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I thankfully live somewhere that's easy to get rare ingredients and food products, but I can totally see Amazon being the only source for plenty of stuff depending on where you live.
For clothes I've actually switched to Apparel.com for Port & Company shirts because they are cheaper and have way more color options. Walmart is also surprisingly decent for pants and shorts.
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Yeah as a ruralcel if I want to get anything not at a walmart it's either a two hour trip or an Amazon order.
The site looks good but the one thing I looked up was cheaper on Amazon. I do need new shirts though, I'll probably end up using them because of the bulk discount.
(btw those Hanes hoodies I linked absolutely mog every other hoodie I've tried. I wear them all year save for the coldest few days in the winter and the hottest in the summer)
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Nice, thanks for the recommendation.
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Where do you live? I get my packages within 2 days every time, sometimes even same day for no extra cost.
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I've lived in both Texas and WA state, both have had packages not show up in time. Though it was way more frequent in Washington. I've heard it's pretty common to not have packages within 2 days on the west coast because of the logistics partners they use over there. I had packages that I had to call them about because it was taking over a week.
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Huh. Never had issues here in Chicago. Any issues I had before I moved here were decidedly the fault of the USPS, honestly the worst courier out there.
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They had another company they used that delivered packages in random cars using a system kinda like Uber. Packages would always be treated badly and arrive late, they often threw the packages onto the driveway. Thankfully UPS would always deliver on time and correctly, often they were delivering a package the other company failed to lmao. It isn't an exaggeration to say about 30-40% of packages I had to call Amazon about. Was a real pain.
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The return
part is the best. I once bought a tie since I needed a specific color on there 
for a presentation, wore it, then 
returned it without even giving them the little 
box it came in. I think there 
might've even been a little 
stain on it.
They're basically Costco at this point
return 
policy-wise and I love 
taking advantage
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I have friends that will literally say shit like "when I opened the box it was just a brick"and send a return.
You can get away with sooooo much. Only one of them has ever faced any consequences from doing this.
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And it’s almost certainly a Chinese knock off.
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