First E-commerce Price Fixing Prosecution Yields Swift Guilty Plea

In what it is calling the Antitrust Division's "first criminal prosecution against a conspiracy specifically targeting e-commerce," the Department of Justice has announced that an individual has agreed to plead guilty to charges that he conspired to fix the prices of wall posters sold online through Amazon Marketplace.  The matter is United States v. Topkins, No. 15 Cr. 201 (N.D. Cal.).

According to the criminal information, David Topkins, who worked for an online seller of posters and framed art, and his co-conspirators fixed the price of certain posters sold online through Amazon Marketplace, a website that allows third parties to sell items to consumers.  The information further alleges that Topkins wrote software code that instructed his company's system to set prices at the agreed-upon levels.  These posters were allegedly then sold at non-competitive prices in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act.  According to the DOJ, Topkins has agreed to plead guilty