Amazon Antitrust Case Gets Go-Ahead In US Court

A US federal judge has handed Amazon a major defeat in ruling the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) can proceed with an antitrust case that the e-commerce giant had sought to derail.

The ruling by Judge John H. Chun also made a small concession to Amazon by throwing out some of the claims by states who participated in the lawsuit.

The case is scheduled for a trial in October 2026.

“We are pleased with the court’s decision and look forward to moving this case forward,” the FTC said in a statement.

“The ways Amazon illegally maintains its monopolies and the harm they cause – including suppressed competition and higher prices for shoppers and sellers – will be on full display at trial.”

Competition

The FTC and the attorneys general of 18 states as well as Puerto Rico said Amazon has been abusing its dominant position in e-commerce to inflate prices for consumers, overcharge sellers and impede competition.

The September 2023 case resulted from an investigation spanning multiple years.

Judge Chun of the of the US District Court for the Western District of Washington allowed the federal antitrust and consumer protection charges by the FTC to proceed, as well as many of the state antitrust and consumer protection claims.

But he dismissed some of the claims unders tate antitrust and consumer protection laws by New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma and Maryland.

Amazon asked Chun to dismiss the case in December, saying the FTC had presented no evidence of harm to consumers.

Chun said in his ruling he cannot consider Amazon’s claims that its actions benefited competition at the current stage of the case.

The company said it was confident it could prove its case in court.

“The ruling at this early stage requires the court to assume all facts alleged in the complaint are true. They are not,” said the company in a statement.

Consumer harm

The firm said the case “falsely” assumes consumers only use popular sites such as Walmart.com, Target.com, Amazon and eBay when shopping for consumer goods.

“Moving forward the FTC will have to prove its claims in court, and we’re confident those claims will not hold up when the FTC has to prove them with evidence,” the company said, adding that the FTC’s approach “would make shopping more difficult and costly”.

In a separate case that is also before Chun’s court, the FTC is also suing Amazon over allegedly tricking users into signing up for its Prime subscription service and making it difficult for them to cancel.

The agency is also suing Meta Platforms over abuse of market power, while the Department of Justice is suing Apple and Google over similar issues.

In August a judge ruled Google acted illegally in maintaining its monopoly in search. Remedies are yet to be decided in that case.