Amazon fined $1 million for misrepresenting savings to customers in Canada

Amazon has agreed to pay a Canadian regulator $1 million to cap a two-year investigation into claims that the site misled customers about how much money they were saving.

The case concerned a sales tactic in which Amazon compared its own price on a given item to a higher "list price" to suggest a bargain.

But the probe by Canada's competition bureau found that those "list prices" came from Amazon's suppliers, and the e-commerce giant didn't bother to verify that they matched prevailing market rates.

Amazon has already taken steps to ensure that market prices listed on its Canadian site are now vetted, the group said.

"We’re pleased that Amazon has put procedures in place to validate list prices received from its suppliers," John Pecman, Canada's competition commissioner, said in a statement. "This ensures that consumers are provided with accurate information and not misled by savings claims."

In addition to the $1 million penalty, Amazon will pay the bureau an extra $100,000 for legal costs.

An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment on the decision.

The case is not the first to accuse Amazon of this sort of misleading price scheme. The company has faced several consumer lawsuits claiming that it deliberately tampers with or fails to vet list prices.

Amazon may have decided the practice is more of a headache than it's worth. The New York Times reported last summer that the shopping site has been quietly phasing out list prices altogether, marking a dramatic shift for a retailer that staked its early reputation on advertising big savings.