The new evidence uncovered shows that Amazon’s agreements to raise prices are typically implemented using one or more of the three price fixing schemes below:

• When Amazon and a competitor are price-matching one another, resulting in a downward pressure on price, either Amazon or the competitor agrees, through their common vendor, to increase the retail price or make the product temporarily unavailable, so that the other retailer can match the increased market price, increasing the price for consumers.

• A competitor offering a discounted price on a product will increase its retail price at Amazon’s request (a request made through the vendor), so that Amazon can then match the increased retail price, thereby increasing the price for consumers.

• The vendor removes a product from a competing retailer who is offering a lower price than Amazon, so that the lower price is no longer available in the market and Amazon then raises its retail price, resulting in a higher price for consumers.

As part of the motion for preliminary injunction, Attorney General Bonta asks the court to stop Amazon’s unlawful conduct including: engaging in explicit price fixing with its vendors and its competitors; communicating with vendors about other retailers’ pricing; and coercing its vendors to serve as the go-between with its competitors by demanding money to make Amazon whole for price matching a lower-priced retailer.