Amazon hit with antitrust suit by Washington over domination in e-commerce

Washington DC, on Tuesday, sued e-commerce giant Amazon with an antitrust suit, claiming that the platform abuses its dominant position in online retail sales, harming consumers. The suit, filed by the office of Attorney-general Karl Racine, says that Amazon’s control of 50 to 70 % of the US e-commerce sales results in higher consumer prices.

“Amazon’s online retail sales platform benefits from, and is protected by, Amazon’s anticompetitive business practices,” said the suit filed in District of Columbia superior court, AFP reported.

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“Far from enabling consumers to obtain the best products at the lowest prices, Amazon instead causes prices across the entire online retail sales market to be artificially inflated, both for products sold on Amazon’s online retail sales platform and on its competitors’ online retail sales platforms,” the suit added.

Amazon, which has long claimed it delivers lower prices for consumers, is yet to reply on the matter.

The lawsuit comes amid heightened scrutiny of large tech platforms which have increased their dominance during the pandemic.

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US state and federal antitrust enforcers last year filed suits targeting Facebook and Google alleging illegal dominance of their respective markets.

Racine’s lawsuit seeks to stop Amazon from “anticompetitive” practices and calls for damages and other penalties.