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An appeals court has <\/a> an antitrust lawsuit against Amazon filed by the Attorney General of Washington, DC more than three years ago. The online retailer must now face allegations that it illegally raised prices for consumers.<\/p>\n The lawsuit was originally filed <\/a> and cited Amazon\u2019s practices related to third-party sellers on its platform. Specifically, it called out a provision in the company\u2019s agreements with third-party sellers that allowed it to punish businesses that offered its products at lower prices on non-Amazon platforms. Karl Racine, the AG at the time, said these agreements allowed the company to \u201cimpose an artificially high price floor across the online retail marketplace.\u201d Racine later <\/a> the case to include Amazon\u2019s pricing tactics for wholesalers.<\/p>\n Amazon has disputed those allegations, and the case was dismissed in 2022. But an appeals court has now reversed that decision. \u201cViewed as a whole, the District\u2019s allegations about Amazon\u2019s market share and maintenance of its market power through the challenged agreements plausibly suggest that Amazon either already possesses monopoly power over online marketplaces or is close to a \u2018dangerous probability of achieving monopoly power,\u2019\u201d the judge wrote.<\/p>\n The reversal adds to Amazon\u2019s antitrust woes. The company is also facing <\/a> from the Federal Trade Commission and more than a dozen states. The UK\u2019s antitrust regulator has also opened <\/a> centered around the company\u2019s $4 billion investment into Anthropic.<\/p>\n In a statement, DC’s current AG Brian Schwalb noted that the district \u201cwas the first jurisdiction to take antitrust enforcement action\u201d against the company. \u201cNow, our case will move forward, and we will continue fighting to stop Amazon\u2019s unfair and unlawful practices that have raised prices for District consumers and stifled innovation and choice across online retail.\u201d<\/p>\n Amazon didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n