# Amazon's Secret "Project Nessie" Made Walmart & Target Raise Prices So It Could Look Cheapest **URL:** \ **Category:** News & Articles\ **Tags:** business, earn-money, tips-tricks, news, eye-opening\ **Created:** [Agosto 6, 2026, 1:47pm UTC](https://onehack.st/t/amazons-secret-project-nessie-made-walmart-target-raise-prices-so-it-could-look-cheapest/324489 "2026-08-06T13:47:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hannah](https://onehack.st/user_avatar/onehack.st/hannah/32/174875_2.png) [@Hannah](https://onehack.st/u/Hannah)\ **Post date:** [Agosto 6, 2026, 1:47pm UTC](https://onehack.st/t/amazons-secret-project-nessie-made-walmart-target-raise-prices-so-it-could-look-cheapest/324489/1 "2026-08-06T13:47:39Z")
# 🛒 Amazon Got Caught Making OTHER Stores Raise Prices — So It Could Look “Cheapest” _A judge unsealed the receipts. Amazon didn’t just lower its own prices — it allegedly leaned on brands to jack up prices at Walmart, Target and Wayfair so nobody could beat it._ **The receipts: 1 secret algorithm (“Project Nessie”) · brands named — Levi’s + Hanes · 6 rival stores allegedly squeezed (Walmart, Target, Chewy, Best Buy, Home Depot, Wayfair) · a SEPARATE $2.5B Amazon settlement over Prime traps.** On April 20, 2026, California AG Rob Bonta got a mostly-unredacted filing unsealed in his 2022 lawsuit. [Full story at CNBC.](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/20/california-da-amazon-price-fixing-walmart-target.html) The short version below — then what a broke 22-year-old actually does with this. ![shopping cart gif](https://media.giphy.com/media/CVtNe84hhYF9u/giphy.gif) > **🧩 Dumb Mode Dictionary** > > | Fancy word | What it actually means | > | --- | --- | > | **Price-fixing** | Secretly rigging prices so they stay high instead of competing. Illegal. | > | **Buy Box** | The “Add to Cart” button on Amazon. Whoever “wins” it gets ~80%+ of the sales. | > | **Buy Box suppression** | Amazon hiding your product / killing your sales if you dared sell cheaper somewhere else. | > | **First-party vendor** | A brand (like Levi’s) selling directly through Amazon. | > | **Project Nessie** | Amazon’s secret price-raising robot (more below). It has a codename. That’s never a good sign. | > | **Antitrust** | Laws that stop one giant company from bullying a whole market. | > **📜 How we got here (the 30-second backstory)** > > - California sued Amazon back in **2022**. Amazon fought to keep the juicy parts secret. For years it worked. > - April 20, 2026: a judge said nah, and unsealed the filing. [The Guardian](https://www.beehive.news/news/264d18df-93f5-4fdf-99df-7d02f7fececf) and [CNBC](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/20/california-da-amazon-price-fixing-walmart-target.html) got the details out. > - This lands on top of a _separate_ FTC deal where [Amazon agreed to pay $2.5B](https://www.aol.com/news/amazon-pay-2-5b-trapping-174339602.html) for trapping people in Prime subscriptions. Rough month for the suits in Seattle. > **🐍 What 'Project Nessie' actually did (this is the wild part)** > > The data shows a robot doing something clever and gross at the same time: > > - Nessie scanned for products where **rivals were likely to copy an Amazon price hike**. > - Amazon raised the price on those items. > - Rivals matched the higher price (because everyone watches Amazon). > - Then Nessie **held the price high** — locking in the increase across the _whole market_, not just Amazon. > > So it wasn’t “Amazon raised its prices.” It was “Amazon used everyone else as puppets to raise prices everywhere, then took the credit for being the anchor.” Read the mechanics at [IBTimes](https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/amazon-price-manipulation-antitrust-cases-1808773). > **💪 The strong-arm part (Levi's, Hanes, and a threat)** > > Per the AG, Amazon allegedly told brands: raise your price on Walmart/Target/Wayfair, or pull the listing entirely. > > - The stick? **Buy Box suppression.** Sell cheaper elsewhere → Amazon quietly buries your product → your sales evaporate. > - Named names in the filing: **Levi Strauss** and **Hanes** , plus pressure aimed at listings on Walmart, Target, Chewy, Best Buy, Home Depot and Wayfair. ([CNBC breakdown](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/20/california-da-amazon-price-fixing-walmart-target.html)) > - Translation: that “lowest price online!” you’ve been trusting for a decade? Allegedly engineered. > **⚖️ The counter-argument (because I always give you both sides)** > > Before you grab a pitchfork — here’s the thing nobody mentions on the outrage threads: > > - These are **allegations in a filing** , not a final verdict. Amazon denies it and says it just “competes hard.” > - “Price matching” is legal and normal. The line Amazon allegedly crossed is _forcing_ others to hold prices high — that’s the difference between competing and colluding. > - And honestly? A lot of “cheapest price” tricks across retail are legal-but-shady. Amazon’s just the one that got the filing unsealed. > > **But here’s the thing nobody mentions:** the real story isn’t the fine. It’s that this proves cross-platform price gaps are _manufactured and unstable_. And any gap you can see before the crowd does… is money. That’s the whole game below. ↓ #### Cool. So Prices Everywhere Are Secretly Puppeted… Now What the Hell Do We Do? ಠ\_ಠ ![price tag scanner gif](https://media.giphy.com/media/tXLpxypfSXvUc/giphy.gif) > **🕳️ The Gap Sniper** > > The lawsuit basically confirms: the same product has different prices on Amazon vs Walmart vs Target vs Wayfair — and those gaps _move_ daily. Most shoppers never check. You do — automatically. > > Set up a free price-tracker on 20-30 popular items across stores. When a gap opens (Amazon high, Target quietly cheaper), you post it to a deals group and collect affiliate cuts. > > 🧠 _Example:_ A 24-year-old in the Philippines runs a Telegram “price gap” channel using [Keepa](https://keepa.com/) (free Amazon price history) + manual Walmart checks. Posts 5 gaps a day with affiliate links. 4,000 subs, ~$600/mo in commissions. > > > 📈 **Timeline:** First affiliate sale in ~2 weeks. Real traction at ~90 days once the channel gets shared. Plateaus when 3 competitors copy your niche — so pick a weird category (pet supplies, craft tools) not phones. > **🐍 Nessie's Ghost (the reverse-tracker)** > > Nessie’s trick was _holding_ a price after rivals matched. You can spot that pattern from the outside: a price that jumps and then sits flat across multiple stores = a probable “hold.” That’s a signal a drop is overdue. > > Build a simple watchlist of items showing the “jump-and-hold.” Alert buyers to _wait_, and sellers to _reprice_. Sell the timing, not the product. > > 🧠 _Example:_ A part-time seller in Poland tracks 50 SKUs with a free [Google Sheets + price-scraper](https://www.parsehub.com/) combo. She DMs small Etsy/eBay sellers: “your competitors are holding at $X, undercut now.” Charges $15/mo per seller for the heads-up. 40 sellers = $600/mo. > > > 📈 **Timeline:** First paying seller in ~10 days (DMs convert fast when you show real data). Burnout risk at ~4 months from manual scraping — automate or cap your client list. > **🪟 The Patch Window Sprint** > > Right now, post-unsealing, brands and rivals are spooked and _loosening_ the exact price-holding behavior the lawsuit exposed. That means unusually messy, mismatched prices for a few weeks while everyone recalibrates. > > This is a short window. Cross-store arbitrage (buy cheap on Store A, resell on Store B/marketplace) is fattest exactly when the market is confused. > > 🧠 _Example:_ A student in Nigeria flips clearance-priced brand apparel from a rival site that panic-dropped prices, reselling on local marketplaces + [eBay](https://www.ebay.com/). Netted ~$400 in the first three weeks of the news cycle. > > > 📈 **Timeline:** Cash in 3-6 weeks. This one _has an expiry date_ — once stores re-sync their pricing bots (mid-2026), the easy gaps close. Sprint, don’t stroll. > **📚 Be the Dictionary for 'Ditch Amazon'** > > Every time a big antitrust story drops, a wave of people search “Amazon alternatives” and “is X cheaper than Amazon.” Almost nobody has made the _clean, comparison_ resource they actually want. > > Make a dead-simple, honest comparison page/PDF: same 50 popular products, real prices across 5 stores, updated monthly. First good one becomes the search anchor. > > 🧠 _Example:_ A 23-year-old in India built a one-page comparison site using free [Google Sites](https://sites.google.com/) + a monthly manual price check. Ranks for “cheaper than amazon [product].” Monetized with affiliate links from _each_ store — ~$800/mo and climbing. > > > 📈 **Timeline:** First traffic in ~4 weeks, real SEO payoff at 3-4 months. Slow build, but it compounds — the page keeps earning while you sleep. > **🎣 Bait the Sellers Who Just Got Scared** > > Third-party sellers just learned their prices can get them buried by Buy Box tricks. They’re anxious and looking for anyone who understands the game. That’s your opening — not as a “consultant,” but as a **done-for-you repricing watcher**. > > Offer a tiny weekly service: you watch their competitors + flag when they’re being suppressed or undercut. Real eyes, real data, one screenshot report. > > 🧠 _Example:_ A guy in Egypt DMs small Amazon sellers on seller forums, offers a $25/week “someone’s-watching-your-back” report built from free [SellerAmp](https://www.selleramp.com/) trials + manual checks. 15 clients = $375/week. > > > 📈 **Timeline:** First client in ~1 week (anxiety sells). Scales to ~20 clients before you’re drowning — then you either automate the report or hire, or you plateau around $1.5k/mo. > **🛠️ Follow-Up Actions** > > | Want to… | Do this | > | --- | --- | > | Track Amazon price history free | Install [Keepa](https://keepa.com/) or [CamelCamelCamel](https://camelcamelcamel.com/) | > | Compare across stores fast | Try [Google Shopping](https://shopping.google.com/) side-by-side | > | Scrape prices without code | Free tier of [ParseHub](https://www.parsehub.com/) | > | Understand the actual case | Read the [CNBC report](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/20/california-da-amazon-price-fixing-walmart-target.html) + [Guardian writeup](https://www.beehive.news/news/264d18df-93f5-4fdf-99df-7d02f7fececf) | > | See Amazon’s other L | [The $2.5B Prime settlement](https://www.aol.com/news/amazon-pay-2-5b-trapping-174339602.html) | **⚡ Quick Hits** | You want… | Do this | | --- | --- | | 🛒 Never overpay again | Check 2 rival stores before every Amazon buy — the gap is real | | 🐍 Spot a “price hold” | Watch for jump-then-flat pricing = a drop is overdue | | 💸 Make money off the mess | Run a price-gap channel while stores are recalibrating | | 📊 Free tracking arsenal | [Keepa](https://keepa.com/) + [CamelCamelCamel](https://camelcamelcamel.com/) | | ⚖ Read the actual receipts | [CNBC’s unsealed-filing story](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/20/california-da-amazon-price-fixing-walmart-target.html) | _“Lowest price online” was a magic trick. Now you know where the mirror is — go find the gap before the bots re-sync._