Calif. Judge Overturns Amazon's Demurrer in Pricing Lawsuit

California Superior Court Judge Ethan Schulman overturned Amazon’s demurrer seeking to dismiss Attorney General Rob Bonta’s (D) antitrust lawsuit in San Francisco County Superior Court. Bonta sued Amazon Sept. 14 alleging violation of California’s Cartwright Act and Unfair Competition laws. Amazon argued its agreements and policies aren't “per se illegal under California law,” said the Thursday order (docket 22-601826). Bonta’s detailed factual allegations “adequately state a claim” that Amazon’s agreements and policies had the “anticompetitive effect of raising prices on competing retail marketplaces” and on its third-party seller websites, he said. Whether Amazon’s agreements and conduct had a substantial anticompetitive effect “raises factual questions that cannot be decided on demurrer,” he said. Whether a given practice is anticompetitive, or “procompetitive,” as Amazon contends, “often does not lend itself to bright-line rules,” he said. The industry- and market-specific contexts of the case raise issues that “almost certainly be the subject of competing expert testimony,” and raise factual issues that also can’t be decided on demurrer, Schulman said. Since the court concluded a cause of action for violation of the Cartwright Act, it also states a viable cause of action for violation of the Unfair Competition Law, he said.