Amazon must face the FTC's landmark antitrust lawsuit, judge says

The order, issued last week by Judge John H. Chun and unsealed Monday, is a major defeat for Amazon, which has been trying for months to have the case dismissed in court. A trial in the case is scheduled to take place in October 2026.

“We are pleased with the court’s decision and look forward to moving forward with this case,” FTC spokesman Doug Farrar said in a prepared statement. “The way Amazon illegally maintains its monopolies and the harm they cause – including stifled competition and higher prices for buyers and sellers – will be on clear display in court.”

The FTC and the attorneys general of 18 states and Puerto Rico have alleged in court that the e-commerce giant abused its position in the market to inflate prices on and off its platform and overcharge sellers calculate and suppress the competition that arises on the market.

The lawsuit, filed in September 2023, is the result of a years-long investigation into the company's operations and represents one of the most significant legal challenges against Amazon in its nearly 30-year history.

US regulators and attorneys general accuse the online retailer of violating federal and state antitrust and consumer protection laws.

In the order, Judge Chun of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington allowed the federal lawsuits and many of the state claims to proceed. However, he dismissed some claims from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma and Maryland based on state antitrust or consumer protection laws.

For its part, Amazon was confident that it would be able to prove its arguments in court as the proceedings progressed

“The ruling at this early stage requires the court to assume that all of the facts alleged in the complaint are true. They are not,” Tim Doyle said in a statement, adding that in its case the agency is “falsely” claiming that consumers only consider the popular websites Walmart.com, Target.com, Amazon and eBay when shopping for household products pull.

“Going forward, the FTC will have to prove its claims in court, and we are confident that these claims will not stand if the FTC has to prove them with evidence,” Doyle said. He also claimed that the FTC's approach would “make shopping more difficult and costly.”

The FTC is also suing Meta Platforms over alleged monopoly practices, while the Justice Department has filed similar lawsuits against Apple and Google, with some success.

In August, a federal judge ruled that the ubiquitous search engine Google was illegally exploiting its dominance to stifle competition and stifle innovation.

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