Key Points:
- California’s attorney general claims Amazon secretly worked with merchants to force rival retailers to raise their prices.
- Newly unsealed evidence details alleged price-fixing schemes involving major companies such as Levi Strauss, Home Depot, and Walmart.
- The state seeks an injunction to stop the alleged illegal practices and wants to recoup all ill-gotten profits.
- Amazon maintains that its agreements with merchants are completely legal and actually benefit everyday consumers.
Amazon is facing explosive new allegations regarding how it handles online competition. California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced on Monday that his office uncovered evidence showing that Amazon worked secretly behind the scenes with major merchants, such as clothing giant Levi Strauss. Bonta claims Amazon used these powerful merchants to prod major online rivals, including Home Depot, Walmart, and Chewy, into artificially raising their prices so they would not undercut Amazon’s own listings.
The shocking evidence came to light as part of a massive, long-running antitrust lawsuit. Attorney General Bonta first filed the lawsuit against the tech giant three and a half years ago. On Monday, a judge finally unsealed the detailed evidence documenting the alleged efforts to fix consumer prices across the internet. Through this lawsuit, the state of California hopes to recoup millions of dollars in what Bonta called illegal, ill-gotten profits. The official trial will begin on January 19, 2027.
Bonta did not mince words when discussing the new evidence. He issued a fierce public statement accusing Amazon of illegally working to rake in massive profits by ensuring that everyday consumers have nowhere else to turn for lower prices. The Seattle-based retail giant did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding the newly unsealed documents. Currently, Amazon is the only official defendant named in the state lawsuit.
The official legal filing, submitted to the San Francisco Superior Court, paints a very detailed picture of the alleged illegal activity. California lawyers described dozens of specific cases of alleged price-fixing that directly boosted retail prices for everyday goods. The unsealed documents show massive price manipulation for common items like khaki pants, garden fertilizer, basic eye drops, and even dog treats.
According to Bonta, this alleged collusion forces outside merchants and rival retailers to make a tough choice. They either have to raise their prices to match Amazon or make their products temporarily unavailable on their own websites. Either way, Amazon wins because it no longer has to lower its own prices to match a cheaper competitor.
The legal filing provided several specific examples of the alleged illegal behavior. In one case, documents describe an alleged effort by Levi Strauss to persuade Walmart to raise its prices actively. Walmart originally charged $25.47 for a pair of Easy Khaki Classic pants. However, after Amazon expressed deep concern over the low price, Levi Strauss allegedly pressured Walmart to raise the price to $29.99 so Amazon would not have to lower its own price to match.
The evidence also points to alleged price manipulation in the home improvement sector. California lawyers claim that Amazon complained directly about a competitor’s lower fertilizer prices. This complaint allegedly prompted Home Depot to agree to raise its own prices to keep Amazon happy. In another medical example, Amazon allegedly pressured Allergan, now owned by AbbVie, to contact Walmart. Amazon wanted Allergan to see whether Walmart would raise the price of its eye drops to $16.99, saving Amazon from having to price-match at the lower $13.59 level.
Even the pet supply industry got dragged into the mess. The legal filing described Amazon’s alleged effort to break a price-match battle with Chewy, a massive online pet-supply retailer. The two companies were fighting over the price of Canine Naturals pet treats. According to the unsealed evidence, an intermediary merchant sent a celebratory message after the plan worked. The merchant wrote that prices that went up on Amazon immediately went up on Chewy as well, adding a smiley-face emoji to the message and noting that the plan seemed to be working perfectly.
Amazon firmly denies doing anything illegal. The tech giant previously stated that its agreements with third-party merchants are entirely legal and benefit everyday consumers. Amazon claims these agreements lead to increased product selection on its website, ensure appropriate stocking levels in its massive warehouses, and ultimately provide competitive prices for shoppers.
The stakes in this legal battle are incredibly high. The company’s massive retail empire continues to grow at an unprecedented rate. In 2025, Amazon’s total revenue officially surpassed that of Walmart, which had long held the title of the world’s largest retailer by revenue. Now, Bonta is seeking a strict legal injunction to completely stop Amazon’s alleged price-fixing schemes while the antitrust case is pending. The court scheduled a hearing to discuss the injunction request on July 23.
