Amazon faces fresh scrutiny
Newly unsealed records in a California antitrust suit allege Amazon used tactics the state attorney‑general calls price‑fixing, a claim Amazon denies. Separately, reports say a warehouse worker collapsed and died while colleagues were told to keep working, and Amazon has also opened its first smart warehouse in China to cut storage costs. (theguardian.com) (jezebel.com) (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
Amazon is facing new pressure on three fronts at once: pricing, warehouse safety, and a new logistics push in China. (oag.ca.gov) (techcrunch.com) (scmp.com) In California, Attorney General Rob Bonta said on February 23, 2026 that newly developed evidence in the state’s 2022 antitrust case shows Amazon pushed vendors to raise prices on rival sites or pull products from them. His office asked a San Francisco court for a preliminary injunction to stop the conduct while the case proceeds. (oag.ca.gov) Bonta’s office said discovery uncovered repeated contacts in which Amazon, vendors, and other retailers allegedly agreed to increase prices elsewhere so Amazon would not be undercut. Amazon has denied the allegations in the case, which California filed in September 2022 under the state’s antitrust and unfair-competition laws. (oag.ca.gov) (unicourt.com) At the same time, scrutiny of Amazon’s warehouse conditions intensified after a worker died at the company’s PDX9 facility in Troutdale, Oregon. TechCrunch reported on April 13 that Amazon confirmed the employee died at work the previous week. (techcrunch.com) Workers told the Western Edge that employees kept working near the scene after the man collapsed on April 6, while Amazon said Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Administration determined the death was not work-related. Amazon also said workers were sent home early with pay and the night shift was canceled. (techcrunch.com) (moneywise.com) The Oregon death landed against a longer record of safety disputes. TechCrunch cited a 2024 analysis of Occupational Safety and Health Administration data showing serious injuries at Amazon fulfillment centers ran at more than twice the warehouse-industry average. (techcrunch.com) While those fights play out in the United States, Amazon is also tightening its grip on cross-border shipping from China. The company launched its first Global Warehousing and Distribution center in Shenzhen on April 15, saying the site can cut storage costs for Chinese merchants by up to 45 percent versus keeping inventory in US warehouses. (scmp.com) (silicon.co.uk) The Shenzhen hub combines local storage, customs clearance, cross-border shipping, and inventory transfers in one system for sellers shipping to US customers. Amazon said it plans to extend the model to the Yangtze River Delta and later to Europe and Japan. (scmp.com) (silicon.co.uk) That leaves Amazon defending how it sets prices, how it runs warehouses, and how it is remaking the supply chain behind its marketplace. The next concrete test is in court in California, where the state is seeking an order to halt the alleged pricing practices before trial. (oag.ca.gov)
