The emails suggest that Amazon employees were coordinating with vendors to encourage major retailers like Walmart and Chewy to raise prices on products listed on their platforms. In one instance, Amazon is accused of increasing prices on a popular set of dog treats and working with the manufacturer to persuade Chewy to match the hike. Amazon allegedly sent the manufacturer a list of products with price increases, instructing them to ensure Chewy followed suit. Just two days later, the manufacturer reportedly confirmed that the price increase had been applied on both platforms.

In another case, Amazon reportedly sent links to Levi’s showing that Walmart was selling Dockers khaki pants at a lower price than Amazon. The next day, Levi’s allegedly told Amazon it had coordinated with Walmart to raise the price of the pants to $29.99, which was then mirrored by Amazon shortly after.

Bonta’s office argues that these actions demonstrate Amazon’s attempt to manipulate the market by colluding with vendors and other retailers to raise prices for consumers, an allegation that the company strongly denies.

“The evidence uncovered today is clear as day: Amazon is working to make your life more unaffordable,” Bonta said, criticizing Amazon for price-fixing. “The company is price-fixing, colluding with vendors and other retailers to raise costs for Americans beyond what the market requires.”

In response, Amazon dismissed the claims, accusing Bonta’s office of a “transparent attempt to distract from the weakness of its case.” The company stated that it remains proud of offering low prices to customers and would address the allegations in court.

Walmart, Levi’s, and Chewy, while mentioned in the filings, are not named as defendants in the case.

These revelations are part of an ongoing antitrust lawsuit filed by Bonta’s office in 2022, accusing Amazon of manipulating prices across various online platforms to create an artificial price floor that limits competition while allowing Amazon to retain its competitive edge. Bonta contends that by controlling prices in this manner, Amazon can present itself as offering the best deals, even as it benefits from reduced competition.

The newly unsealed records were part of a motion filed in February by Bonta, seeking an injunction to halt Amazon’s alleged price-fixing practices. Amazon’s trial is scheduled to begin in January 2027, and the company continues to deny the core allegations, arguing that its practices encourage competition rather than stifle it.

This is not the first time Amazon’s pricing practices have come under scrutiny. In a separate release, the Guardian reported last week on additional court documents showing how Amazon’s tactics allegedly pressured smaller companies to raise their prices in order to compete on its platform.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Facebook is asking that the new head of the Federal Trade Commission step away from decisions on whether to continue the agency’s antitrust case against the social network giant, asserting that past public criticism of the company’s market power makes it impossible for her to be impartial.

Facebook Inc. petitioned the agency Wednesday to remove Chair Lina Khan from taking part in decisions on the FTC’s antitrust lawsuit against the company. A federal judge recently dismissed the suit by the FTC and one from a coalition of states, saying they didn’t provide enough evidence to prove that Facebook is a monopoly in the social networking market. The judge, however, allowed the FTC to revise its complaint and try again.

Khan has been a persistent critic of Amazon, Google and Apple, as well as Facebook.

FTC officials declined comment on Facebook’s motion, which came two weeks after Amazon requested that Khan be removed from taking part in antitrust investigations of that company. The agency could be expected to respond formally at some point. Khan has said she would seek the opinion of FTC ethics monitors if issues arose of potential conflict of interest.

It’s not known how internal FTC rules on conflict of interest might be interpreted in this case. On the face of it, though, “the fact that (Khan) has a point of view and has expressed it forcefully is not a basis for recusal,” said Stephen Gillers, a law professor at New York University who is an expert on ethics.

In its petition, Facebook cited a 1966 ruling by a federal court disqualifying the FTC chair at the time from participating in a proceeding against the defendant company because he had earlier investigated many of the same facts concerning the company as a congressional aide.

As counsel to a House Judiciary antitrust panel in 2019 and 2020, Khan played a key role in an extensive bipartisan investigation of the market power of tech giants, including Facebook.

In the 1966 case, it appeared that then-FTC chair Paul Rand Dixon may have had access to relevant information through his congressional work that could not properly later be used at the FTC, Gillers suggested. He said Khan’s earlier work in the congressional probe might possibly warrant her recusal if she received information in that job that would not otherwise be available to the FTC and that she could not properly use or disclose.

If Khan were to step aside, the FTC’s current balance of three Democratic and two Republican commissioners would shift and could deadlock a decision on the Facebook case in a 2-2 tie. The two Republican commissioners voted against bringing the Facebook suit last year.

The requests from Facebook and Amazon come as the four tech giants fall under extreme scrutiny and legislative pressure from the FTC, the Justice Department, European regulators, lawmakers in Washington, and, most recently, from an executive order from the White House.

“When a new commissioner has already drawn factual and legal conclusions and deemed the target a lawbreaker, due process requires that individual to recuse herself from related matters when acting in the capacity of an FTC commissioner,” Facebook said in its petition. “Chair Khan has consistently made public statements not only accusing Facebook of conduct that merits disapproval, but specifically expressing her belief that the conduct meets the elements of an antitrust offense.”

President Joe Biden recently installed Khan as one of five commissioners and head of the FTC, signaling a tough stance toward Big Tech and its market dominance. At 32, she is the youngest chair in the history of the agency, which polices competition and consumer protection in industry generally, as well as digital privacy.

Facebook said it was making the request “to protect the fairness and impartiality” of the agency’s antitrust proceedings. “Chair Khan has consistently made well-documented statements about Facebook and antitrust matters that would lead any reasonable observer to conclude that she has prejudged the Facebook antitrust case brought by the FTC,” the company said in a statement.

Biden’s sweeping executive order on competition in U.S. industries, issued Friday, includes a new policy of closer scrutiny by regulators of proposed mergers, especially by dominant internet companies. Giant tech companies have snapped up competitors in hundreds of mergers in recent years, waved through by antitrust enforcers in both Republican and Democratic administrations.

The new order also asks the FTC to establish new rules on surveillance by tech giants and their accumulation of users’ data. In addition, the agency is requested to write rules barring unfair practices toward competitors in online marketplaces.

Last month ambitious legislation that could curb the market power of Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple, and force them to sever their dominant platforms from their other lines of business was approved by a key House committee and sent to the full U.S. House. Some lawmakers and others critical of Facebook have cited its popular Instagram and WhatsApp messaging services as likely candidates to be divested from the core platform.

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