Amazon: Antitrust lawsuit dismissed over pricing
However, the Attorney General in Washington is considering appealing the verdict
Gabriel ThomasOctober 4, 2026
Amazon.com Inc. on Friday won the dismissal of a District of Columbia antitrust lawsuit alleging that the company harms consumers by preventing sellers in its marketplace from making better deals elsewhere.
The lawsuit was settled by the D.C. Superior Court, Hiram Puig-Lugo, dismissed, according to an entry in the complaint based on Amazon's motion to dismiss. The request was denied by Washington Attorney General Karl Racine, whose office said it was considering an appeal.
"We believe that the Superior Court misread the matter and that its oral decision failed to consider the detailed allegations in the lawsuit, the full scope of the anti-competitive agreements, the extensive filing and a recent federal court decision allowing a nearly identical lawsuit has," a spokeswoman for the Washington Attorney General said on Friday.
"We are considering our legal options and will continue to fight to develop sound antitrust justice in our local courts and hold Amazon accountable for using its combined power to unfairly tilt the playing field in its favor," he said the speaker.
Amazon argued in its motion to dismiss the lawsuit in Washington that price caps in its contracts with sellers in the retail industry are common and perfectly legal.
The company also argued that the lawsuit would harm consumers if successful.
"One of Amazon's primary business objectives in serving its customers is to have a reputation for low prices, and Amazon continually works to maintain that reputation by offering competitively priced products in its store," Amazon said in its motion to dismiss , which was submitted in October. "The district's lawsuit, if allowed, would undermine this pro-consumer approach.
The Office of the Attorney General of D.C. argued that it is Amazon that is driving prices up.
The case was tried under District of Columbia law, not federal law, and even if it were successful, its immediate impact would have been limited.
Still, the case represents an early attempt to challenge Amazon's practices as anticompetitive -- at a time when other big tech companies like Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google unit have been repeatedly sued by federal and state agencies are. Both companies have denied any anti-competitive behavior.
Amazon "has made online shopping more expensive for consumers through its anti-competitive agreements that prevent sellers from offering lower prices on and for competing online marketplaces," the district said in its response. "These agreements restrict competition, resulting in higher prices, less innovation and less choice for consumers."
Until 2019, Amazon specifically prohibited U.S. sellers from offering their products at a lower price or better terms elsewhere online, the lawsuit says. Amazon removed that policy and replaced it with a new "Fair Pricing Policy," which is a "virtually identical replacement," according to the lawsuit.
The fair pricing policy allows sellers to set their own prices, according to Amazon. The company also monitors prices elsewhere on the web. If a seller is listing a product on Amazon at a higher price than advertised elsewhere, Amazon may not list that seller's listing.
The e-commerce giant has explained that this policy aims to protect consumers from over-pricing and to provide sellers with information so that their offers can be displayed. The company says it decides which deals to offer based on price, delivery speed and other factors.
Mr. Racine, the D.C. Attorney General, has said that this policy hurts consumers because it forces sellers not to offer lower prices on other websites, even though the sellers might like to do so.
