Is Amazon driving up prices at other stores?
California is accusing Amazon of a price-fixing scheme that pushes wholesale vendors to raise prices at competing stores like Target and Walmart.
California has launched an investigation into Amazon for allegedly engaging in a price-fixing scheme, which allegedly forces wholesale vendors to increase prices at competing retailers such as Target, Walmart, Chewy, and Best Buy. The state claims it has supporting evidence after the discovery phase of the investigation. The case is built on numerous email exchanges between managers of Amazon vendors and brands such as Levi's, GlobalOne, Hanes, and Scotts Miracle-Gro.
Business Insider has accessed the entire case file and examined hundreds of pages of documents, along with over a dozen email exchanges, to determine whether Amazon employs its considerable influence as the largest e-commerce company in the United States to coerce vendors into raising prices at rival retailers. Additionally, the outlet interviewed several third-party sellers, including the creators of the Bed Scrunchie, who claim they too are subjected to pressure from Amazon to raise prices at other stores.
The question remains: has Amazon grown too powerful and influential, and is it possible that the company is leveraging its dominance to push prices higher across the board?
Written by urgent.news from Business Insider's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
