Why Arizona Wants To Topple A Fortune 500 Giant

Since its inception in 1994, Amazon has been the biggest online retailer in the world. Starting by selling books in his garage, Jeff Bezos built Amazon.com into an omnipresent force that doesn't ask "will you buy from us?", rather "when will you buy from us?".

They've gotten so big, it almost feels like they can do whatever they want with little to no consequence. Arizona wants to be the one to put a stop to it.

Why is Arizona Suing Amazon?

Why anyone would have anything other than peaches and cream to say about the biggest company in the world is beyond me, but Attorney General Kris Mayes has her issues. She claims that Amazon is intentionally misleading their customers and engaging in unfair business practices.

She's levied two lawsuits against the retail giant that she hopes will put them in their place.

Lawsuit #1: Amazon Prime Cancellation

The first lawsuit is focused on Amazon's widely popular membership service, Prime. Mayes claims that Amazon is intentionally deceiving customers who use Prime, by first charging them a $14.99/month subscription fee. This fee brings in over $25 Million ALONE in profit, and also causes Prime members to spend nearly double what normal shoppers do.

Mayes also claims that Amazon intentionally created the process of cancelling your subscription to be complicated in order to confuse customers and convince them to just keep the membership.

Lastly, Mayes believes that since Prime customers give Amazon more traffic, they collect more data to create more profit, a violation of the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act.

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Lawsuit #2: The "Buy Box" Problem

The second lawsuit is meant to tackle Amazon's confusing purchasing options. Depending on the item you'd like to purchase, Amazon will either display an "Add to Cart" option or a "Buy Now" option.

Amazon claims that the choice is made based on the deal the customer will get, offering "Buy Now" when they find the best deal. Mayes claims that this is a lie, and that the "Buy Now" option only shows up on products that will make Amazon more money, like the Amazon Basic basketball vs. a Wilson basketball.

It seems almost impossible to completely take down the Amazon giant, but these lawsuits may help put them back in check.

[Courthouse News Service]