The FTC claimed the company used a series of illegal strategies to boost profits.
WASHINGTON: Amazon.com used a series of illegal strategies to boost profits at its online retail empire, including an algorithm that pushed up prices US households paid by more than US$1 billion, the US Federal Trade Commission detailed in a new court filing on Thursday.
Amazon spokesman Tim Doyle said the FTC “grossly mischaracterises” the pricing tool and the company stopped using it several years ago. After outside retailers began matching or increasing their own prices, Amazon would continue to sell the product at an inflated price, the FTC alleged, which resulted in US$1 billion in excess profit.
Amazon in April 2018 used it to set prices for more than 8 million items purchased by customers that collectively cost almost US$194 million, the complaint said, before pausing it in 2019. The FTC complaint also accuses Amazon of seeking to hide information about operations from antitrust enforcers by using the Signal messaging app’s disappearing message feature and said the company destroyed communications from June 2019 to early 2022.
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