This is explained in the OP article linked here... Although I guess not everyone actually reads the articles so reiterating in the comments is useful. > Still

This is explained in the OP article linked here... Although I guess not everyone actually reads the articles so reiterating in the comments is useful. > Still, why can’t a third-party seller offer a lower price outside of Amazon? Good question! That’s where the scheme gets very clever. Originally, Amazon imposed contracts, as the FTC noted, “barring all sellers from offering their goods for lower prices anywhere else.” But Europeans, and Senator Richard Blumenthal, complained about these price parity agreements, so Amazon dropped its explicit contractual requirements in 2019. > However, this change was a farce. The firm simply did through code what it couldn’t do through contract. "Amazon,” claims the FTC, “has implemented an algorithm for the express purpose of deterring other online stores from offering lower prices. > Today, Amazon tells sellers that if it detects a lower price for their products on any other online store, they will be punished, which is to say, their ability to get their products onto a place on the Amazon website where customers click will go away. The net effect, as Amazon itself wrote, is that "prices will go up."