San Francisco Superior Court Judge Ethan Schulman told a hearing Thursday that his tentative ruling denies California’s request for an order barring Amazon from fixing prices while the state’s antitrust case proceeds, according to Reuters. Schulman was skeptical of the request because the state had built it on evidence from 2023, and his final decision comes after it. Attorney General Rob Bonta, whose 2022 suit accuses Amazon of anticompetitive tactics that raise consumer prices, said in April that his office had turned up evidence Amazon pressed brands such as Levi Strauss, Allergan and Hanes to push Walmart and Target into raising their own prices so it wouldn’t be undercut. A spokesperson for Bonta called the tentative ruling disappointing, and the case is set for trial in January.
