News from Amazon 2 04/2026
Price coordination: California publishes damaging evidence against Amazon
At the end of April 2026, California Attorney General Rob Bonta released largely unredacted evidence from an ongoing lawsuit against Amazon. The documents suggest that Amazon instructed vendors over multiple years to raise product prices on competing platforms such as Walmart, Target, and Home Depot. Vendors who did not cooperate allegedly faced significant consequences, ranging from ad and promotion restrictions to removal from Amazon's assortment.
How is the system said to have worked?
According to the released documents, Amazon used three mechanisms:
Vendors were directly asked to raise prices at competitors.
Alternatively, competitors were contacted via the shared vendor and asked to adjust prices so Amazon could follow.
Or products were simply removed from cheaper competing channels.
Specific email communications reportedly document these processes in cases involving Levi's, Allergan, and several other brands. Particularly notable are direct quotes in which Amazon employees stated they were "highly determined to hunt down market disruptors."
Could this also happen in Germany?
Vertical price coordination is clearly prohibited under both EU competition law and German antitrust law. Germany's Federal Cartel Office has already scrutinized Amazon in the past, including over so-called most-favored-nation clauses that were dropped in 2013. Whether coordinated price increases in the form described here also occurred in Europe is currently unknown. Given Amazon's global structures, however, the topic remains relevant for European regulators as well.
What happens next?
The hearing on the request for a preliminary injunction is scheduled for July 23, 2026, while the main trial is expected to begin in January 2027. We will continue to track developments for you.
You can find our popular Round Table and other news formats on our landing page.
Amazon massively expands its AI infrastructure
Multi-billion investment in Anthropic
Amazon is investing another USD 5 billion in Anthropic, the company behind the chatbot Claude. Depending on specific business milestones, up to USD 20 billion more could follow in additional steps, bringing the total investment volume to as much as USD 25 billion. Amazon had already invested a total of USD 8 billion in Anthropic, making it one of the company's leading backers.
This partnership is not one-way: Anthropic will use Amazon's own Trainium AI chips to train its models and also plans to spend more than USD 100 billion over the next ten years on semiconductors and compute capacity at AWS. For Amazon, this significantly strengthens its cloud infrastructure as a core pillar in the global AI race.
However, Anthropic is currently in the spotlight not only because of its technology, but also due to political disputes. Despite major pressure, the company insisted that its AI models must not be used in autonomous weapons systems or for mass surveillance. The US Department of Defense then classified Anthropic as a supply-chain risk, which could make deployment in government agencies significantly harder. Anthropic is taking legal action against that classification. At the same time, the company introduced a new model, Claude Mythos Preview, that can detect long-undiscovered software vulnerabilities, a topic of major interest for governments worldwide.
Meta bets on AWS Graviton for agentic AI
In parallel, Meta signed an agreement with AWS to deploy AWS Graviton processors at large scale. The rollout starts with tens of millions of Graviton cores, with expansion options depending on how Meta's AI capabilities grow. This already makes Meta one of the largest Graviton customers worldwide.
The backdrop is a structural shift in AI infrastructure: while GPUs remain highly relevant for training large models, agentic AI, autonomous systems that independently plan and execute multi-step tasks, increasingly creates CPU-intensive workloads. These include real-time reasoning, code generation, search, and the coordination of complex tasks.
The Graviton5 chip with 192 cores and a five-times larger cache than the previous generation is designed for exactly these requirements and, according to AWS, delivers up to 25% better performance with higher energy efficiency.
Graviton5 is built on the AWS Nitro System architecture, combining dedicated hardware and software to ensure high performance, availability, and security. In addition, Graviton5 instances support the Elastic Fabric Adapter (EFA), enabling low-latency, high-bandwidth communication between instances, essential for Meta's agentic AI workloads where large tasks must be distributed across many processors.
Our take
Both developments show how consistently Amazon is positioning AWS as central AI infrastructure in global competition. The investment in Anthropic and the Graviton partnership with Meta are clear signals that Amazon is strengthening the foundation for scalable AI applications over the long term. For sellers and vendors, this likely means continued expansion of AI-powered tools and services on Amazon. These are developments worth tracking closely.
REVOIC goes OMR 2026 in Hamburg
OMR (Online Marketing Rockstars) is one of the largest marketing and technology trade fairs in the German-speaking market. Every year, tens of thousands of professionals from marketing, e-commerce, technology, and the digital economy come together to discuss current trends, build new connections, and gain inspiration from speakers and exhibitors. This year, OMR takes place in Hamburg.
REVOIC is there
REVOIC will also be present at OMR this year. Stephan and Maik will be on-site, and several colleagues from our team will also attend the festival. It is a great opportunity to meet us in person, discuss current Amazon topics, or simply connect.
Feel free to reach out
If you are planning a conversation with us or want to coordinate in advance, feel free to contact Stephan or Maik directly. We look forward to meeting you at OMR.
In 2026, we are focusing on new marketing channels to keep you up to date with Amazon news: Our REVOIC podcast is published every Friday, and our YouTube channel has been fully revamped and now delivers fresh content regularly.
We look forward to your feedback!
Since April 16, 2026, Amazon has opened its new Germany headquarters in Munich's Parkstadt Schwabing, a 45,000-square-meter campus with 2,500 workplaces.
Kaufland.de plans to launch its online marketplace in France in August 2026 and in Italy in September 2026, with the stated goal of becoming Europe's alternative to Amazon and Temu.
From July 2026, every package with a value up to EUR 150 will be subject to a EUR 3 levy, mainly affecting platforms such as Shein, Temu, and AliExpress, but also Amazon. The levy is intended as a transitional solution, as the existing EUR 150 customs exemption threshold is set to be fully abolished from 2028, making all imported goods subject to customs duties from the first euro.
