E-commerce exec pleads guilty to price fixing

The Justice Department said the case involves the first criminal prosecution against a conspiracy specifically targeting e-commerce.    The U.S. Justice Department said David Topkins, a former executive of an e-commerce seller of posters, prints and framed art in San Francisco, agreed to plead guilty for conspiring to fix the prices of posters sold online.
   A one-count felony charge was filed Monday in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California in San Francisco against Topkins. According to the charge, Topkins and his co-conspirators fixed prices on certain posters sold online through Amazon Marketplace from as early as September 2013 until January 2014.
   Topkins also agreed to pay a $20,000 criminal fine and cooperate with the department’s ongoing investigation. The plea agreement is subject to court approval, the Justice Department said.
   The department noted the case involves the first criminal prosecution against a conspiracy specifically targeting e-commerce.
   “We will not tolerate anticompetitive conduct, whether it occurs in a smoke-filled room or over the Internet using complex pricing algorithms,” said Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, in a statement. “American consumers have the right to a free and fair marketplace online, as well as in brick and mortar businesses.”
   To implement the price-fixing scheme, Topkins and his co-conspirators “adopted specific pricing algorithms for the sale of certain posters with the goal of coordinating changes to their respective prices and wrote computer code that instructed algorithm-based software to set prices in conformity with this agreement,” the Justice Department explained.  
   Topkins is charged with price fixing in violation of the Sherman Act, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years and a fine of $1 million for individuals.