Court Rejects Temporary Curbs on Amazon Pricing, Trial Set for 19 January 2027
Key Facts
A court rejected California's request for a temporary injunction against Amazon's alleged pricing practices, Bloomberg Law reported on 28 August 2026. The state had announced its request for interim relief on 23 February 2026, seeking to restrict the company's communications with suppliers about rival stores' prices. According to the court filing, the request was limited to Amazon's direct sales and its relationships with wholesale suppliers. California asked that the company be barred from communicating with those suppliers about prices offered by other retailers. The dispute is part of a lawsuit in which the state is seeking compensation for consumers for harm it says resulted from higher prices.
The California Department of Justice announced on 20 April 2026 that it had made documents and correspondence publicly available that it says support its allegations that Amazon influenced its competitors' selling prices. According to the department's statement, the company threatened to restrict advertising and promotions to push suppliers to comply with its demands. The state says the pressure also included demands for financial compensation from suppliers. Under one mechanism it described, a product is withdrawn from a rival store offering it at a lower price, removing the cheaper offer from the market. California accuses Amazon of raising its own retail price after that offer is removed, making the company's dealings with the supplier influence the price available to consumers at competing stores.
Examples cited by the department included correspondence about Levi's pants listed on Walmart's website at prices ranging from $25.47 to $26.99. According to the state, the supplier later reported that the price had been raised back to $29.99, using the word "immediately" in the correspondence. The published examples also included apparel company Hanes and its relationships with Target and Walmart, according to the department's account of the correspondence. California says Amazon sent Hanes links to cheaper offers at the retailers before the supplier told the company it had contacted them to raise prices. The state cites these communications in accusing Amazon of using its relationships with clothing suppliers to push up prices on rivals' offers.
In the fertilizer sector, the department cited correspondence between Amazon and supplier AgroThrive about low prices at Home Depot. According to the state, the supplier's response to Amazon's complaint referred to a meeting with a manager at the retailer and her agreement to increase prices. The department quoted the supplier as saying: "I just got out of a meeting with the Home Depot manager, and she agreed to raise prices this time." In another example involving household goods, the state says Amazon objected to a lower price for a trash can at Wayfair. It added that supplier Songmics then urgently asked Wayfair to "stop running discounts on it," in correspondence published by the department to support its allegations.
Amazon rejected California's characterization of the request for court intervention and attacked the basis of the case in a response reported by the Associated Press. The company described the request as "a clear attempt to distract from the weakness of its case." Walmart said, according to the agency, that it does not comment on litigation to which it is not a party, despite being named in the examples presented by the state. The original lawsuit dates to 14 September 2022, when California announced it was suing Amazon over its pricing practices. The state's lawsuit relies on California's Unfair Competition Law and the Cartwright Act, according to the Department of Justice statement announcing the case.
California's demands in the lawsuit include the appointment of a court-approved monitor to oversee Amazon's compliance, according to the Department of Justice statement announcing the case. That oversight demand adds to the state's efforts to obtain compensation for consumers for harm linked to higher prices. In another legal proceeding within the dispute, the court had previously rejected Amazon's motion for summary judgment on its seventh counterclaim. The California Department of Justice announced that decision in April 2026, before the later report that the interim relief sought by the state had been rejected. The trial is scheduled to begin on 19 January 2027, according to the date announced by the department.