Amazon sued over pricing policy, to pay $2 million

Online sellers are not the only ones who are sensitive to Amazon's pricing policies and practices. Recently, Amazon received two lawsuits against its pricing policies , one from a California district attorney and the other from a class action lawsuit filed by Illinois booksellers.

According to the district attorney in Riverside County, California, it obtained a civil judgment in a consumer protection lawsuit against Amazon that said Amazon will pay a total of $2 million in penalties to the state Consumer Protection Trust Fund .

The district attorney’s complaint alleges that some of Amazon’s “reference price” ads are misleading , arguing that Amazon routinely uses reference prices, often called “original prices” or “list prices,” to promote savings to consumers.

District attorneys said they determined there were problems with the way Amazon sets its reference prices . Meanwhile, a bookseller sued Amazon and five major publishers in federal court, accusing them of limiting competition in the sale of printed trade books (hardcover , paperback and mass-produced).

The lawsuit alleges that Amazon intentionally acquired monopoly power in the U.S. online retail trade book market, which accounts for about 90 percent of all print book sales, by entering into agreements to set wholesale prices for books and preventing Amazon’s competitors from competing on price.

“We believe we have uncovered a classic antitrust price-fixing scheme, exactly like those alleged against Amazon and the Big Five book publishers in the past,” said the managing partner of Hagens Berman .

"The Big Five and Amazon have tried to squeeze every penny out of online and retail booksellers through a complex and restrictive set of agreements, and we intend to put an end to this anti-competitive behavior , " Berman said.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer says Hagens Berman has filed other class-action lawsuits alleging price fixing, and reports that the firm sued Apple over e-book prices in 2011 and again this year sued Amazon over similar allegations.

The law firm said in a news release that the five publishers named in the lawsuit control 80% of the trade book market, and said Amazon accounts for about half of all books sold, including 90% of print books sold online.

Publishers sued along with Amazon are Hachette , HarperCollins , Macmillan , Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster.

The lawsuit was filed by Bookends & Beginnings, which operates a bookstore in Illinois and sells books online through its website. It buys books wholesale directly from five publishers named in the lawsuit.

“The proposed online and physical retail book sellers seek monetary damages under the Sherman Act, as well as an order from the court to cease and desist from monopolizing and price fixing,” said law firm Hagens Berman .

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