• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, April 9, 2025

Siding against Amazon, a federal judge this week rejected its bid to throw out antitrust charges brought by the Federal Trade Commission, which claims the retailer illegally hindered competition in the "online superstore."

Amazon had urged U.S. District Court Judge John Chun in Seattle to rule that FTC's lawsuit was procedurally improper, contending that the agency could not seek an injunction against the company in federal court unless the agency first brought charges in an in-house administrative court.

Chun disagreed, writing that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals -- which covers Washington -- ruled in 1982 that the FTC can request injunctions regardless of whether it pursues an enforcement action in an in-house administrative court.

The ruling comes in a battle dating to September 2023, when the FTC and more than a dozen states claimed Amazon wrongly prevents marketplace sellers from discounting their products on other sites, and requires sellers to use Amazon's fulfillment system in order to participate in Amazon Prime, which offers expedited shipping. 

That "interconnected strategy" aims to “block off every major avenue of competition -- including price, product selection, quality, and innovation -- in the relevant markets for online superstores and online marketplace services,” the complaint alleged. Online superstores are described in the complaint as stores offering "a single destination for shoppers to browse a large and diverse selection of goods from multiple brands across a wide range of categories.

The FTC is seeking an injunction that would prohibit Amazon from engaging in conduct the agency claims is anti-competitive.

Amazon previously argued to Chun that even if the FTC's allegations were proven true, they wouldn't support a finding that the company violated antitrust laws.

“The complaint does not identify a single product or product category for which prices have risen as a result of the challenged conduct,” Amazon wrote in a December filing. “Instead, it implausibly, and illogically, assumes that Amazon’s efforts to keep featured prices low on Amazon somehow raised consumer prices across the whole economy.”

Chun rejected that argument last year, paving the way for the litigation to continue.