Amazon accused of widespread scheme to inflate prices across the economy

Alleged price-fixing & “price parity” practices

• Many commenters say Amazon has long forced “price parity”: if a seller lists lower prices elsewhere (including their own site), Amazon punishes them by hiding the listing, removing the Buy Box, or otherwise throttling sales.
• People argue this effectively raises prices across the web: to keep selling on Amazon and cover its high fees, sellers raise prices everywhere, then maybe discount on their own sites via coupons.
• Others note this is similar to “most favored nation” clauses common in retail, but say targeting only Amazon makes little sense unless such clauses are banned industry-wide.

Impact on sellers, lawsuits, and power imbalance

• Sellers allegedly fear retaliation and are locked into arbitration, so class actions are hard. Legal costs and timeframes (trial not before 2027) are seen as prohibitive for small businesses.
• Some describe past ways to game Amazon’s systems (book pricing via Createspace/KDP) that may have driven Amazon to tighten rules.

Marketplace vs retailer conflict of interest

• Strong criticism of Amazon being both dominant marketplace and competing retailer, likened to a mall landlord also running the biggest store and controlling visibility.
• Comparisons with Costco/Walmart: Costco buys inventory and sells directly; Amazon intermediates for millions of third-party sellers while also selling its own goods.
• A long-time Amazon seller explains: search aims for “lowest price on Amazon” while Amazon’s wholesale arm seeks strong margins. That interplay allegedly pressures brands to raise prices off-Amazon to preserve lucrative purchase orders. Many see this outcome—not the stated intent—as what matters.

Consumer experience, Prime, and marketplace “enshittification”

• Several users report canceling Prime due to delays, counterfeit or returned goods, and search pages dominated by ads and low-quality “alphabet soup” brands.
• Others still value the convenience and shipping scale; some say Amazon’s logistics genuinely lower fulfillment costs compared with small retailers.
• Debate over a cited figure that North American revenue equals roughly $3,000 per household: some think this is unsurprising for a major retailer; others dispute the math and note skewed income distributions.

Legal / policy responses & corporate power

• Some see the California case and prior federal suits as hopeful but worry penalties will be trivial compared to profits.
• There are calls for executive criminal liability, stronger antitrust enforcement, or breaking up mega-retailers entirely, not merely fining them.
• Others stress that consumer boycotts alone won’t fix systemic issues; only regulation and antitrust action can.

Related practices: Audible/Kindle and recommendations

• Audible/Kindle exclusivity rules (e.g., subscription inclusion requiring authors to pull works from other channels or free sites) are cited as another way Amazon raises effective floor prices and harms independent authors.
• One commenter suggests recommendation algorithms optimize for engagement and margin, not consumer value, indirectly rewarding higher-priced or higher-margin listings and reinforcing price inflation.