Justice Department cracks down on Amazon sellers' DVD pricing plan

The Justice Department has charged three people with a DVD and Blu-ray pricing operation run through the Amazon Marketplace. The men - Morris Sutton, Emmanuel Horizadeh, and Raymond Nouvahian - pleaded guilty yesterday to violating criminal antitrust laws under the Sherman Act for a plan that ran from 2017 to 2019.

Sutton, Horizadeh, and Nauvahian collaborated with each other in several US states (as well as other unnamed parties, at least one of which) to make shoppers pay more for movie discs than Amazon's third-party marketplace storefronts. Can go also convicted). A set of plea agreements provide few more details about the plot, resulting in Sutton selling DVDs and Blu-rays worth at least $360,000 over the course of two years, while Horizadeh and Nauwahian earned at least $1.1 billion. of sale. Took a lakh The conspirators communicated with each other to eliminate competition and raise prices, a legal violation that carries up to 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

In a statement, Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Cantor called the petition part of a larger commitment to protect competition in online sales. “As US consumers increasingly turn to e-commerce, it is critically important to prevent, detect, and prosecute crimes that prevent fair and open competition in online marketplaces,” Kantor said. "These allegations demonstrate the continued commitment of the Antitrust Division, wherever it may be."

Cantor is known as a prominent critic of the potential Monopoly online platform. Before President Joe Biden was confirmed as head of the antitrust division at the Justice Department, he represented Yelp and Microsoft in cases alleging anti-competitive behavior by Google, and with Federal Trade Commission Chair Lena Khan. Simultaneously, he presided over the government's antitrust investigation. Many of the "Big Tech". "Companies. Amazon's pricing fees show another way for the department to crack down on these platforms' pieces, even if the companies behind them are not directly involved.