San Francisco
The $1.3trn e-commerce giant Amazon is facing its biggest ever legal challenge, after California’s attorney general Rob Bonta (pictured) filed an antitrust lawsuit accusing it of illegally stifling competition and forcing up prices for consumers. While the suit is limited to California, it could have major repercussions across the US if successful, says The New York Times. The lawsuit, filed last week, centres on Amazon’s penalisation of Amazon Marketplace sellers who list their products at lower prices on other websites, such as Target or Walmart. If a seller is caught doing so Amazon will remove the “buy now” and “add to cart” buttons, in effect excluding them from the largest online market. Amazon claims the idea that it is illegally squeezing its merchants is “exactly backwards”, says Lauren Silva Laughlin on Breakingviews. “Forcing it to showcase products at higher prices would be antithetical to antitrust regulatory goals,” it argues. The courts will ultimately decide that question, but in the meantime investors should understand that they are currently granting Amazon “a market
