Calif. Judge Denies Amazon Motion to Keep Antitrust Complaint Sealed
California Superior Court Judge Curtis Karnow in San Francisco denied without prejudice Amazon’s motion to keep sealed portions of a California complaint alleging the company skirted antitrust and unfair competition laws (see 2210130034), said an order he signed Friday (docket CGC-22-601826). The Oct. 11 declaration from Cristina Fernandez, Amazon corporate counsel-competition, in support of the motion to seal was flawed because “it does not tie a rationale for redactions to any specific redaction, leaving it to the court to guess which rationale supports which specific redaction,” said Karnow’s order. He cautioned Amazon that “literally every word sought to be redacted must be shown to be confidential information subject to sealing.” The complaint remains “provisionally under seal,” pending Amazon’s renewed motion to seal, said the judge. California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) filed the heavily redacted complaint Sept. 15, alleging Amazon "makes consumers think they are getting the lowest prices possible, when in fact, they cannot get the low prices that would prevail in a freely competitive market." That's because Amazon "has coerced and induced its third-party sellers and wholesale suppliers to enter into anticompetitive agreements on price," said Bonta.