Apple and Amazon Face Revived UK Consumer Lawsuit Over Marketplace Pricing
A UK consumer class-action lawsuit against Apple and Amazon has been revived by the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT), allowing allegations of marketplace price-fixing to proceed to trial.
The lawsuit, which seeks billions of pounds in compensation for affected UK consumers, centers on a 2018 agreement between the two tech giants that saw hundreds of third-party Apple resellers removed from Amazon's UK marketplace.
Presiding Judge Kelyn Bacon permitted claims tied specifically to Apple and Beats products purchased through Amazon's UK marketplace to move forward, but dismissed broader assertions that the alleged anti-competitive behavior affected prices across Apple's own retail stores or independent third-party vendors outside of Amazon.
The collective claim alleges that Apple and Amazon colluded or engaged in anti-competitive practices to stifle competition for Apple products on Amazon's UK marketplace, leading to inflated prices for British consumers.