Jerod MacDonald-Evoy(Arizona Mirror) Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes is suing online retail giant Amazon, alleging in a pair of lawsuits that its “unfair and deceptive” business practices have violated both the state’s consumer fraud and antitrust laws.The two separate lawsuits come as the Federal Trade Commission is gearing up for an October 2026 trial against Amazon for alleged federal antitrust violations.“[W]hile the Attorney General believes that the FTC has a strong case against Amazon, there were also good claims to make under Arizona’s consumer fraud and antitrust statutes, and decided that was the best course of action for the state to take,” Richie Taylor, a spokesman for Mayes, said in an email to the Arizona Mirror.The two suits target different aspects of Amazon’s business. The consumer fraud suit focuses on the way the company allegedly uses deceptive tactics to prevent users from canceling their Amazon Prime memberships, while the antitrust suit centers on how the company punishes sellers who price their products lower than Amazon does.“Amazon’s anti-competitive and monopolistic practices have artificially inflated prices for Arizona consumers and harmed smaller third-party retailers that rely on its platform,” Mayes said in a press release. “Amazon must be held accountable for these violations of our state laws. No matter how big and powerful, all businesses must play by the same rules and follow the same laws as everyone else.”Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Dark patternsThe consumer fraud lawsuit alleges that Amazon used “dark patterns” to deceive consumers who were attempting to cancel their Prime membership. The phrase, which refers to user interface designs that use ambiguous language or tactics, has gained increased attention due to the FTC lawsuit that makes similar claims.Internal Amazon documents obtained by Business Insider, which are referenced in Mayes’ suit, showed that employees knew they were de …
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