Amazon Sellers, Price Fixing, Tennessee 2023

Amazon Sellers Sentenced for Price Fixing in Tennessee

Five individuals and four companies have been sentenced for participating in a conspiracy to fix the prices of DVDs and Blu-Ray Discs sold on the Amazon marketplace in Tennessee.

The investigation resulted in six individual guilty pleas and four corporate guilty pleas. Victor Btesh, of New York, was sentenced to 18 months’ incarceration, followed by two years of supervised release, and a fine of $38,000.

Btesh’s three companies, Michelle’s DVD Funhouse, MJR Prime, and Prime Brooklyn, were each respectively sentenced to a $156,520, $125,688, and $61,844 criminal fine on August 23, 2023, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee.

Additionally, Emmanuel Hourizadeh, Raymond Nouvahian, Morris Sutton, Bruce Fish, and Fish’s company, BDF Enterprises, Inc. were all sentenced on July 21, 2023, also in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee.

Hourizadeh, and Nouvahian, both of New York, were sentenced to one month’s imprisonment, seven months home confinement, a criminal fine of $55,000 each, and two years of supervised release; Sutton, of New Jersey, was sentenced to one month’s imprisonment, five months home confinement, a $20,000 criminal fine, and two years of supervised released; Fish, of Minnesota, was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment, six months’ home confinement, a $48,750 criminal fine, and two years of supervised release; and Fish’s company, BDF Enterprises, was sentenced to a $234,000 criminal fine.

“Americans are becoming increasingly reliant on online marketplaces, making it more important as ever to protect them from being cheated on the internet,” said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Manish Kumar of the Antitrust Division.

“Conspiring to fix prices in online marketplaces is a federal crime,” said U.S. Attorney Francis M. Hamilton III for the Eastern District of Tennessee.

According to court documents, these defendants agreed with co-conspirators to raise and maintain the prices of DVDs and Blu-Rays sold through Amazon marketplace storefronts, resulting in those products being sold at collusive and noncompetitive prices.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edtn/pr/five-amazon-marketplace-sellers-and-four-amazon-marketplace-companies-sentenced-price