DC Attorney General Karl Racine has filed a motion (PDF) asking the courtroom to rethink its choice to dismiss the antitrust lawsuit he filed towards Amazon in 2021. In the unique lawsuit, Racine accused the e-commerce large of “illegally abusing and maintaining its monopoly power by controlling prices across the online retail market.” Third-party sellers that use Amazon’s Marketplace need to abide by the corporate’s settlement, which features a fair pricing policy. If they promote their items for decrease costs elsewhere, Amazon might take away their objects’ purchase field, droop their cargo possibility and even terminate their promoting privileges for “serious or repeated cases.”

The firm stopped telling sellers again in 2019 within the midst of antitrust scrutiny that they could not promote their merchandise for cheaper costs elsewhere. However, the corporate later added again a clause underneath its honest pricing coverage that is practically equivalent. Racine argued that since sellers worth their items with Amazon’s lower in thoughts, the coverage artificially raises costs even on sellers’ personal web sites and on competing e-commerce platforms. 

Amazon instructed us when Racine first filed the lawsuit that the Attorney General had it “exactly backwards.” The spokesperson stated: “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. The relief the AG seeks would force Amazon to feature higher prices to customers, oddly going against core objectives of antitrust law.” The Superior Court of the District of Columbia sided with Amazon and threw out Racine’s criticism again in March. 

Now, the DC AG needs one other probability at proving that Amazon violated antitrust legal guidelines. His workplace’s amended criticism consists of extra particulars about how the corporate’s coverage violates DC code, principally specializing in the way it “causes prices to District residents to be higher than they otherwise would be” and the way it inhibits sellers from competing with Amazon’s personal merchandise. 

Racine stated in a press release concerning the movement he filed:

“We’re asking the court to reconsider its decision to dismiss our Amazon case because the antitrust laws and facts are on our side and we are determined to continue standing up for DC consumers. Amazon illegally uses its market power to prevent sellers from lowering their prices on other platforms — including their own. This results in higher prices for DC consumers.”