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U.S. shoppers spent $9.4 billion online on Cyber Monday — up almost 20% from a year ago and a record — boosting an already robust holiday shopping season.

In a letter sent to federal lawmakers, an online merchant has accused Amazon.com of forcing him and other sellers to use the company’s expensive logistics services, which in turn forces them to raise prices for consumers.

Ever since Amazon.com bought Whole Foods in 2017 for $13.7 billion, shoppers and investors have wondered how the e-commerce giant would integrate the upscale grocer into its sprawling online operation. Now, after two years of tinkering, Amazon is betting big on quick delivery from Whole Foods.

EBay Inc. sued three employees working at e-commerce rival Amazon.com, alleging that they conspired with dozens of other workers to fraudulently take high-value online merchants from eBay.

Internet searches for “Canceling Amazon Prime” were 18 times higher June 15 — the beginning of Amazon.com’s two-day sale — than the previous day, according to search engine monitoring firm Captify, suggesting shoppers did not want to make a long-term commitment to the giant online retailer.

Amazon.com is tapping high-profile actors, athletes and social-media sensations like never before to maintain buzz around its Prime Day summer sale, now in its fifth year and battling increasing competition from rivals.

Two months ago, Amazon halted orders from thousands of suppliers with no explanation. Panic ensued — until the orders quietly resumed weeks later, with Amazon suggesting the pause was part of a campaign to weed out counterfeit products.

Amazon's pledge last month to pump $800 million into making next-day delivery the new standard upped the pressure on its brick-and-mortar rivals to spend more trying to catch up all over again.

Amazon.com on March 9 hinted that fighting counterfeits was a reason for its sudden and unexplained purge of thousands of vendors that sowed panic among longtime suppliers.

Amazon.com abruptly stopped buying products over the past two weeks from many of its wholesale vendors, encouraging them to instead sell their products directly to consumers on Amazon’s marketplace.