U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik ruled Monday (Jan. 5) that the eCommerce giant’s claims in seeking the dismissal were “unpersuasive,” Reuters reported Monday. Amazon had argued that consumer protection laws in Washington state—where the company is based—are vague when it comes to pricing issues.
The judge said it was plausible to infer that shortages, public health restrictions and a shift to online shopping left customers with “no meaningful choice but to purchase from Amazon despite the allegedly unfair prices it was charging,” according to the report.
The class action suit accuses Amazon of failing to take measures to prevent merchants on its platform from charging excessive prices during the pandemic.
Steve Berman, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, told Reuters the ruling is “an important win for consumers,” and added that internal Amazon documents showed that the company knew what price gouging was and assured state attorneys general it was working to prevent it.
Amazon did not reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment.
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In other Amazon news, the company is applying generative and agentic artificial intelligence to simplify online shopping by reducing the effort needed to seek out, compare and evaluate products.
“With hundreds of millions of items available across dozens of categories, choice can become friction,” PYMNTS reported Monday. “To address this, Amazon has expanded AI-driven search and discovery tools that move beyond keyword matching to interpret customer intent, using signals such as reviews, price sensitivity, delivery speed, return rates and prior browsing behavior.”
The aim is to help shoppers make decisions more quickly and with confidence, particularly in complex categories where comparisons are time-consuming.
Also Monday, PYMNTS reported on Amazon’s move to advance Alexa beyond its device roots. The day had seen the company unveil a browser-based expansion of Alexa+ and make product announcements at CES 2026 focused on Fire TV and the Bee wearable.
“Together, the updates show Amazon advancing Alexa as a cross-surface artificial intelligence assistant while continuing to refresh its consumer hardware portfolio,” the report said.
