Partially redacted portions of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) antitrust lawsuit against Amazon allege the company used an internal algorithmic pricing tool described as an “unfair method of competition” to test how much it could raise prices so competitors would follow.
FTC officials and 17 state attorneys general sued Amazon last week for allegedly using “interlocking and anticompetitive and unfair” strategies to maintain its monopolistic power over current and future rivals.
The 172-page lawsuit details a number of examples accusing the American multinational company of raising consumer prices across retail, including a system called “Project Nessie,” which Amazon allegedly stopped using in 2019 for unknown reasons.
Sources familiar with the complaint told The Wall Street Journal that the algorithm allegedly “helped Amazon improve its profit on items across shopping categories, and because of the power the company has in e-commerce, led competitors t …