Amazon Ordered to Face Antitrust Case Over Merchant Price Policy

Amazon.com Inc. lost its bid to end federal antitrust litigation in Seattle over claims that its “most favored nation” policies for merchants have driven up prices across the internet.

Judge Ricardo S. Martinez let most of the proposed consumer class action move forward Tuesday in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington. Though the case’s complex antitrust theories are novel, they’re legally plausible, the judge said.

“Plaintiffs’ allegations, although complicated, are not as complicated as Amazon would have it,” he wrote. “The fact that no court has ever found a policy like these to violate the Sherman ...