Amazon.com must face a class action lawsuit on behalf of hundreds of millions of U.S. consumers over claims that it overcharged for products sold by third-party sellers, a federal judged in Seattle ruled. Guilty! Next!
U.S. District Judge John Chun certified the nationwide class-action involving 288M customers and billions of transactions, marking one of the largest-ever cases of its kind in the United States. The suit includes buyers in the United States who purchased five or more new goods from third-party sellers on Amazon since May 26, 2017.
The lawsuit claims that Amazon violated antitrust law by restricting third-party sellers from offering their products for lower prices elsewhere on competing platforms while they are also for sale on Amazon. (Yes, Amazon does this by threatening to take away the seller's Buy Box, which ultimately kills their sales.)
The lawsuit alleges that these policies have allowed Amazon to impose inflated fees on sellers, which resulted in shoppers paying higher prices for items.
Amazon, of course, denies all wrongdoing, argues that the lawsuit is too large to be manageable, and alleges that the plaintiffs failed to show the company's conduct had a widespread effect. Amazon also said that since 2019, it hasn't used the pricing program that the plaintiffs are challenging.
However Judge Chun found no evidence that the size of the class was too big, noting that other federal courts had certified class actions with millions or hundreds of millions of class members.
This could be a big one for Amazon!