California's Unredacted Filing Reveals Amazon's Alleged Price-Fixing Scheme Involving Levi Strauss, Hanes

California Attorney General Rob Bonta released a largely unredacted court filing Monday that exposes internal Amazon communications alleging the company coerced major brands into pressuring competitors to raise prices, according to documents filed in San Francisco Superior Court.

The 19-page memorandum, filed in support of a preliminary injunction, contains verbatim email chains that had remained heavily redacted until this disclosure. The evidence reportedly shows Amazon strong-armed brands including Levi Strauss and Hanes into pressuring Walmart, Target, and other rivals to elevate their prices—allegedly to shield Amazon's $2.66 trillion market position. Bonta characterized the conduct as "naked" and "per se illegal" under California's Cartwright Act, which prohibits agreements to fix prices or restrain trade. The filing builds on reporting by the Guardian but goes further by naming specific brands and reproducing direct communications that document the alleged coordination.

The documents represent what Bonta described as an unusually explicit example of retail price-fixing in written form. "You don't see price fixing so explicitly and egregiously in writing like this," he told reporters. The filing signals escalating legal pressure on Amazon's commercial practices in California, one of the company's largest markets. Beyond the antitrust litigation, the exposure raises questions about how aggressively Amazon leveraged supplier relationships to influence pricing across the broader retail sector. The company has not yet formally responded to the unredacted allegations.