Emails released in a court filing by California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta show Amazon allegedly colluding with other companies to raise prices. Pet treats, khaki pants, and more are teased as part of the nineteen page document. There’s a direct impact on the geek space as Amazon not only purchased comiXology, a platform for digital comics, but also is a major retailer for comic graphic novels, manga, trade paperbacks, video games, and tabletop games. It’s unknown how wide Amazon’s pricing pressure reached but it could have major reverberations for brick and mortar retailers as well as other online retailers.

As an example of what was going on in the case of GlobalOne, Chewy, and the retail price for pet treats:

Amazon, vendor GlobalOne, and Chewy fixed prices on over ten Canine Naturals pet treat products. This is also an example of Breaking the Price Match, but here, Amazon breaks the price match so that Chewy will match the increased price.

The plan was memorialized in an email from GlobalOne. For its part, Amazon would “artificially take [Canine Naturals] retails up . . . to get Chewy to follow.” Then GlobalOne would “reach out to Chewy” to let them know that Amazon was increasing the list pricing and “would ask that [Chewy] follow. If they agree we’d then execute everything.” In other words, if Chewy agreed, Amazon would increase its retail list pricing for the Canine Naturals pet treats and Chewy would match the price increase. In response, Amazon insisted on even higher prices and asked if GlobalOne had a “chance to connect with Chewy on timing of executing this.” GlobalOne then asked “[w]hen [] Amazon [would] raise their retail and for how long? I’m working [to] pick a date in early January so we can make sure your competitor [Chewy] follows suite [sic].”14 Amazon confirmed it would “update the price . . . on 1/5 and hold the price for 24 hours.” As promised, on January 5, Amazon emailed GlobalOne with a list of thirteen Canine Naturals pet treat products with the agreed-upon increased list prices, confirming that “[a]ll list prices are updated . . . I’ve submitted a ticket . . . to override this match [to Chewy] for [24] hours. As you noted, Chewy should be aware of this update and follow suit accordingly.”

Numerous publishers have retail stores set up directly in Amazon and it’s unknown how those stores with Amazon and their rules regarding manufacturer’s suggested retail price and retail store sending rules might intersect.

In their announcement of the unredacted filing, Attorney General Bonta said:

The evidence we’ve uncovered is clear as day: Amazon is working to make your life more unaffordable. The company is price fixing, colluding with vendors and other retailers to raise costs for Americans beyond what the market requires — beyond what is fair. Amid a crisis of affordability, Amazon is illegally working to rake in profits by making sure consumers have nowhere else to turn to for lower prices. We’ll see them in court.

In their release, they lay out different scenarios where Amazon manipulated prices colluding with distributors and other retailers.

A hearing on a preliminary injunction motion to stop Amazon’s actions during the case is set for July 23. This case is scheduled to go to trial in January 2027. We’ll have further coverage, especially if it impacts the pop culture space.