Amazon must pay $2.25 million and permanently shut down a previously suspended sales program, following an investigation and lawsuit by the attorney general of Washington alleging it was essentially price fixing.
“Sold By Amazon” basically worked like this. Amazon would contact a third-party seller and they would agree on a minimum price for an item. If Amazon sold the item for more, they would split the profits. In a way it’s not so different from buying a bunch of stuff wholesale and reselling it. But due to how Amazon dynamically prices and presents items in the store, that’s not quite what happened.
As the AG’s office explains, Amazon ended up increasing the price of the items to match other retailers, and prevented sellers from offering discounts. As a result, …
