California's attorney general has released explosive internal emails revealing Amazon's alleged years-long scheme to manipulate prices across the country's biggest retailers.
Attorney General Rob Bonta on 20 April 2026 secured public access to a largely unredacted version of apreliminary injunction filingin a lawsuit his officefirst brought against Amazon in 2022. The court documents lay out specific email exchanges in which Amazon directed vendors to pressure competing retailers into raising their prices, or pull products from shelves altogether.
Levi Strauss, Hanes, Allergan, and gardening supplier Agrothrive are among the companies whose internal correspondence with Amazon now forms the backbone of the state's price-fixing case.
According to the unredacted filing, Amazon deployed three distinct methods to drive up consumer prices. In the first, Amazon and a rival retailer used their shared vendor as a go-between, arranging for a price increase or a temporary product withdrawal so the competitor could match the inflated rate. In the second, a rival already selling a product at a lower price was instructed, through the vendor, to raise that price so Amazon could then match the new higher figure.
In the third scheme, the vendor removed a product entirely from any competing platform offering it at a lower price, eliminating that cheaper option from the market altogether. Bonta said these directives were not suggestions. Vendors that failed to comply faced advertising and promotion restrictions, financial penalties, and the removal of their products from Amazon's platform.
Amazon has been coordinating with vendors and major retailers — including Target, Walmart, Chewy, and Home Depot — to raise prices across the market.This is a widespread scheme spanning years across markets — and it’s illegal.We’re fighting to stop it.pic.twitter.com/p77N6P0kV3
'Amazon used vendors as the middleman,' Bontatold reporters, directing them to contact retailers and push for price increases so Amazon would not have to compete on price directly.
These alleged schemes covered a broad range of everyday goods, from clothing and pet food to eye drops and household furniture. Bonta noted that 92 per cent of consumers say they are more likely to buy from Amazon than any other site, giving the company substantial leverage to enforce compliance.
Theunredacted evidenceincludes several specific email chains that Bonta's office says are representative of a widespread pattern spanning years and multiple product categories.
In one exchange, Amazon sent Levi Strauss links to Levi's Easy Khaki Classic fit trousers priced between £19.50 ($25.47) and £20.70 ($26.99) onWalmart.com, below Amazon's preferred retail price of £22.99 ($29.99). Amazon wrote that it 'hoped these can get resolved over the next few days.' The following day, a Levi Strauss employee confirmed that Walmart had agreed to bring the price 'back up to... $29.99 immediately.' Amazon acknowledged the increase and confirmed it had matched the higher price on its own platform.
Source: International Business Times UK
