Apple and Amazon.com must face a consumer antitrust lawsuit in a US court, a federal judge in Seattle ruled Thursday, accusing them of conspiring to artificially inflate the price of iPhones and iPads sold on Amazon’s platform. Has been accused of.
In his decision, US District Judge John Coughner rejected bids by Apple and Amazon to dismiss the potential class action on various legal grounds.
Coughnour said that the “legality” of the relevant market, a central issue in antitrust litigation, was a question for the jury.
The lawsuit, filed in November, is one of several private and government actions challenging Amazon’s online pricing practices. Kuffnour’s decision means the case will proceed to evidence gathering and other pre-trial proceedings.
Lawyers for Apple and Amazon and representatives for the companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday.
Plaintiffs’ attorney Steve Berman called the court’s decision “a major victory for consumers of Apple phones and iPads.”
The plaintiffs are US residents who purchased new iPhones and iPads on Amazon since January 2019. They argue that Apple and Amazon reached an agreement that took effect that year, which restricted the number of competing resellers in violation of antitrust provisions.
According to the lawsuit, in 2018, there were approximately 600 third-party Apple resellers on Amazon. The lawsuit alleges that Apple agreed to give Amazon discounts on its products if Amazon reduced the number of Apple resellers from its marketplace.
Apple has argued that its agreement with Amazon limited the number of authorized resellers to help reduce counterfeit Apple goods sold on the e-commerce platform.
In a court filing, Apple’s lawyers called the agreement “common” and said that “the Supreme Court and the Ninth Circuit have routinely held that such agreements are anti-competitive and lawful.”
The judge in Seattle said the “countervailing” motivations for the agreement between Apple and Amazon would be addressed later in the litigation.
Apple reported sales of $94.8 billion (roughly Rs. 7,81,500 crores) in the second quarter, and Amazon reported sales of $127.4 billion (roughly Rs. 10,508,00 crores) in its most recent quarterly earnings report.
The complaint seeks unspecified triple damages and other relief.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
