Washington sues Amazon, alleging its policies lead to higher online prices everywhere
CBSN
Washington, D.C.'s attorney general is suing Amazon on antitrust grounds, claiming the world's largest online retailer artificially inflates product prices online through the agreements it imposes on smaller sellers.
In a lawsuit filed in the District of Columbia court Tuesday, Attorney General Karl Racine takes aim at the e-commerce giant's contract provisions with third-party sellers, alleging they break the District's anti-monopoly laws. Until 2019, Amazon banned sellers on its platform from selling items for a lower price outside of Amazon. That year, under increased scrutiny from lawmakers, Amazon changed its policy from an outright ban on lower prices elsewhere to a warning that companies who did offer lower prices outside of Amazon's platform could be demoted or banned from selling there, according to the suit.Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.