DOJ Charges Former E-Commerce Executive With Price Fixing, Violating Antitrust Law
A one-count felony charge was filed Monday against David Topkins in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California in San Francisco, the Department of Justice said in a news release. Topkins, a former executive of an e-commerce…
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seller of posters, prints and framed art, agreed to plead guilty for conspiring to fix the prices of posters sold online by adopting specific pricing algorithms, DOJ said. Topkins and his co-conspirators “fixed the prices of certain posters sold online through Amazon Marketplace from as early as September 2013 until in or about January 2014,” DOJ said. Topkins agreed to pay a $20,000 criminal fine and “cooperate with the department’s ongoing investigation,” DOJ said. The plea agreement is subject to court approval. “Today’s announcement represents the division’s first criminal prosecution against a conspiracy specifically targeting e-commerce,” said Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer of the Antitrust Division.