(The Center Square) – Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced two lawsuits against Amazon for allegedly running afoul of state laws.
The state has two separate lawsuits against the company, both of which have to do with consumers. One is related to the process it takes to cancel its subscription service, Prime, which the complaint alleges that the “hurdles to cancellation were intentional” to get fewer people to cancel.
In addition, another lawsuit targets Amazon’s “Buy Box” tactics used on the website to encourage people to purchase a product in a certain way. Namely, the lawsuits accuse the online company of breaking the Arizona Uniform State Antitrust Act and the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act.
Mayes said that it the alleged methods have negatively impacted the wallets of consumers.
“Amazon’s anti-competitive and monopolistic practices have artificially inflated prices for Arizona consumers and harmed smaller third-party retailers that rely on its platform,” Mayes said in a statement. “Amazon must be held accountable for these violations of our state laws. No matter how big and powerful, all businesses must play by the same rules and follow the same laws as everyone else.”
The complaints explain how Amazon will allegedly prioritize ways to maximize profit in a non-transparent manner, even though many different types of sellers use the online marketplace.
“While ostensibly identifying the selection that consumers would make if they considered all the available offers, Amazon’s Buy Box algorithm deceptively favors Amazon’s profits over consumer well-being and will often select an Amazon first-party retail or FBA offer over an offer from a non-FBA seller, even when the non-FBA offer for the same product and delivery time is cheaper,” the complaint alleges.
“The result is that consumers routinely overpay for items that are available at lower prices from other sellers on Amazon — not because consumers don’t care about price, or because they’re making informed purchasing decisions, but because Amazon has chosen to display the offers for which it will earn the highest fees,” the complaint adds.
A spokesperson for Amazon responded to the accusations Wednesday.
“We are surprised and disappointed by these cases, which the Arizona Attorney General initiated without reviewing a single document from Amazon, resulting in a fundamental misunderstanding and mischaracterization of how Amazon’s businesses work,” said Spokesperson Tim Doyle. “Prime’s sign-up and cancellation processes are clear and simple by design, meeting a high bar for customer satisfaction well above legal requirements. Customers sign up for Prime because it’s an incredible service and a great value, and they can cancel their Prime membership with a few clicks from the home page.”
Doyle said the suits would force Amazon to engage in practices that actually harm consumers and the many businesses that sell on the site—such as having to feature higher prices.
Mayes has focused on various consumer protection lawsuits in her tenure as Attorney General, including a $13 million settlement with Cox Communications and different companies over robocalls.
