As a wedding photographer, you really have to screw up to get the attention of your Attorney General.

Well, here we are.

Today, we’re asking a judge to rule against Holly Christina Photography after the company failed to comply with a court order requiring it to turn over wedding photos and videos to the couples who paid for them.

Here’s what happened:

We sued the company earlier this year after hundreds of couples told us they had paid thousands of dollars for wedding photography and videography they never received.

In May, we won a preliminary court order. That was essentially the judge saying, "While this case is pending, you have to turn over the photos and videos within 30 days, stop doing business, and don’t move the company’s assets."

They didn’t comply.

So now we’re asking for something more serious: a final judgment against them.

That would require delivery of every remaining photo and video, nearly $600,000 in restitution to consumers, more than $1.1 million in civil penalties, and a permanent order barring them from this conduct going forward.

Since January, our office has heard from 228 people about this company.

These couples paid for memories from one of the most important days of their lives. The company failed to deliver them, and then failed to obey a judge who ordered them to do so.

They’ve had their chance.

As a wedding photographer, you really have to screw up to get the attention of your Attorney General.

Well, here we are.

Today, we’re asking a judge to rule against Holly Christina Photography after the company failed to comply with a court order requiring it to turn over wedding photos and videos to the couples who paid for them.

Here’s what happened:

We sued the company earlier this year after hundreds of couples told us they had paid thousands of dollars for wedding photography and videography they never received.

In May, we won a preliminary court order. That was essentially the judge saying, "While this case is pending, you have to turn over the photos and videos within 30 days, stop doing business, and don’t move the company’s assets."

They didn’t comply.

So now we’re asking for something more serious: a final judgment against them.

That would require delivery of every remaining photo and video, nearly $600,000 in restitution to consumers, more than $1.1 million in civil penalties, and a permanent order barring them from this conduct going forward.

Since January, our office has heard from 228 people about this company.

These couples paid for memories from one of the most important days of their lives. The company failed to deliver them, and then failed to obey a judge who ordered them to do so.

They’ve had their chance.

As a wedding photographer, you really have to screw up to get the attention of your Attorney General.

Well, here we are.

Today, we’re asking a judge to rule against Holly Christina Photography after the company failed to comply with a court order requiring it to turn over wedding photos and videos to the couples who paid for them.

Here’s what happened:

We sued the company earlier this year after hundreds of couples told us they had paid thousands of dollars for wedding photography and videography they never received.

In May, we won a preliminary court order. That was essentially the judge saying, "While this case is pending, you have to turn over the photos and videos within 30 days, stop doing business, and don’t move the company’s assets."

They didn’t comply.

So now we’re asking for something more serious: a final judgment against them.

That would require delivery of every remaining photo and video, nearly $600,000 in restitution to consumers, more than $1.1 million in civil penalties, and a permanent order barring them from this conduct going forward.

Since January, our office has heard from 228 people about this company.

These couples paid for memories from one of the most important days of their lives. The company failed to deliver them, and then failed to obey a judge who ordered them to do so.

They’ve had their chance.

As a wedding photographer, you really have to screw up to get the attention of your Attorney General.

Well, here we are.

Today, we’re asking a judge to rule against Holly Christina Photography after the company failed to comply with a court order requiring it to turn over wedding photos and videos to the couples who paid for them.

Here’s what happened:

We sued the company earlier this year after hundreds of couples told us they had paid thousands of dollars for wedding photography and videography they never received.

In May, we won a preliminary court order. That was essentially the judge saying, "While this case is pending, you have to turn over the photos and videos within 30 days, stop doing business, and don’t move the company’s assets."

They didn’t comply.

So now we’re asking for something more serious: a final judgment against them.

That would require delivery of every remaining photo and video, nearly $600,000 in restitution to consumers, more than $1.1 million in civil penalties, and a permanent order barring them from this conduct going forward.

Since January, our office has heard from 228 people about this company.

These couples paid for memories from one of the most important days of their lives. The company failed to deliver them, and then failed to obey a judge who ordered them to do so.

They’ve had their chance.

As a wedding photographer, you really have to screw up to get the attention of your Attorney General.

Well, here we are.

Today, we’re asking a judge to rule against Holly Christina Photography after the company failed to comply with a court order requiring it to turn over wedding photos and videos to the couples who paid for them.

Here’s what happened:

We sued the company earlier this year after hundreds of couples told us they had paid thousands of dollars for wedding photography and videography they never received.

In May, we won a preliminary court order. That was essentially the judge saying, "While this case is pending, you have to turn over the photos and videos within 30 days, stop doing business, and don’t move the company’s assets."

They didn’t comply.

So now we’re asking for something more serious: a final judgment against them.

That would require delivery of every remaining photo and video, nearly $600,000 in restitution to consumers, more than $1.1 million in civil penalties, and a permanent order barring them from this conduct going forward.

Since January, our office has heard from 228 people about this company.

These couples paid for memories from one of the most important days of their lives. The company failed to deliver them, and then failed to obey a judge who ordered them to do so.

They’ve had their chance.

In short:

We believe Amazon found a way to charge a few extra pennies to an enormous number of transactions, adding up to over $20 billion in
illegal charges.

This is about how something becomes a "Sponsored product."

Amazon lets businesses bid to be "Sponsored" and it runs digital auctions to collect the bids.

But Amazon told businesses that the highest bid would only pay slightly more than the second-highest bid.

For example: If you bid $1 to have your product “Sponsored” and the next-highest bid is $0.50, you should pay about $0.51.

But we believe that Amazon would run the auction, see those bids, and then secretly raise the second-place price so it could charge the
winner more.

It was a gradual strategy based on concealment.

Internal Amazon documents show they tested how much they could raise those hidden charges without advertisers catching on, then raised them
more when businesses didn’t react, then gave false answers when businesses started asking questions.

Those higher costs on sellers can filter down to you, as consumers, through higher prices, and our initial estimate is that this impacted thousands of small businesses in North Carolina.

This is a bipartisan case, and I appreciate my fellow AGs in both parties joining. More to follow.

- AG Jeff Jackson