District Attorney’s office included in lawsuit targeting unfair Amazon business practices

Online retail giant Amazon has been ordered to pay $2 million in penalties, costs and restitution in a civil consumer protection lawsuit brought by a coalition of California prosecutors, including the Santa Cruz County District Attorney’s Office.

The lawsuit, filed this month in San Diego Superior Court, took aim at Amazon’s use of “former price” listings, used to compare favorably with listed items’ actual sale price. It was settled in a stipulated judgment signed Wednesday.

“Some advertised ‘former prices’ were misleading in that the ‘former price’ was not timely nor supported by sufficient number of sales, and that ‘former prices’ in which the product is sold by a manufacturer, supplier or other seller, insufficiently disclosed that the ‘former price’ was not necessarily the prevailing market price or regular retail price at which the product could be purchased,” according to a press release from the district attorney’s office.

Amazon reportedly already enacted stipulated judgment changes and revisions to its pricing disclosures, working “promptly and cooperatively throughout the investigation,” according to the release. Among changes and revisions, the site now will include a hyperlink to bring the consumer clear definitions of the meaning of these referenced pricing terms.

The Santa Cruz County Consumer and Environmental Affairs Unit was one of the originators in the investigation of Amazon’s business practices, working in cooperation with the San Diego, Alameda, Santa Clara, Yolo and Riverside district attorney’s offices. The lawsuit’s fees will become part of the state’s Consumer Protection Trust Fund.