The image is by Alex Castro.
Three men have been charged by the Justice Department with running an operation to fix the prices of DVD and Blu-ray discs. The men pleaded guilty to violating antitrust laws under the Sherman Act.
Several parties collaborated with each other to make buyers pay more for movie discs from Amazon's third-party Marketplace storefronts. A set of plea agreements offer a few more details about the plot, which resulted in Sutton selling at least $360,000 worth of DVDs and Blu-rays over the course of two years. 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.
The plea deals are part of a larger commitment to protecting competition in online sales, according to the assistant attorney general. It is important to deter, detect and prosecute crimes that prevent fair and open competition in online marketplaces as American consumers increasingly turn to e- commerce. The Antitrust Division is committed to prosecuting anticompetitive conduct wherever it may occur.
Kanter is a critic of online platforms. He was confirmed as the antitrust division head in President Joe Biden's Justice Department, but before that, he was involved in several antitrust investigations of companies like Microsoft and Yelp. Even though the companies behind the platforms aren't directly implicated in the price-fixing charges, the department can still crack down on them.
