California sues Amazon, alleging its dominance pushes up prices

California is suing Amazon, accusing the company of violating the state's antitrust and unfair competition laws by allegedly stifling competition and forcing sellers to maintain higher prices on their products on other sites.

In the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in San Francisco Superior Court, California Attorney General Rob Bonta claims that Amazon uses contract provisions to effectively bar third-party sellers and wholesale suppliers from offering lower prices for products on non-Amazon sites, including on their own websites. That, in turn, harms the ability of other retailers to compete, according to the complaint. 

"Without basic price competition, without different online sites trying to outdo each other with lower prices, prices artificially stabilize at levels higher than would be the case in a competitive market," the complaint states.