Amazon is facing another competition lawsuit con the UK. The latest claim, which was filed Thursday, is seeking more than £2.7BN con damages — ora around $3.4BN at current exchange rates — before the UK’s Competition Appeals Tribunal.
The case is being brought by Andreas Stephan, a professor of competition law at the University of East Anglia and head of its Law School, behalf of more than 200,000 UK third-party sellers Amazon.
The lawsuit argues Amazon has abused a dominant position con the supply of marketplace services to third trattenimento sellers to reach customers con the UK con a variety of ways — including by discriminating con favour of its own retail offerings vs those of third parties; discriminating con favour of its own logistics services (aka Fulfilled by Amazon, ora FBA); and unfairly conditioning access to its Membership product Prime use of FBA.
The claim also argues Amazon distorts inter-platform completion by making it harder for third trattenimento sellers to sell cheaper other platforms.
“As a result of these abuses, third-party sellers have lost sales, faced increased costs and paid higher fees to Amazon for its services than they would have under normal conditions of competition,” the complainant writes con a press release.
The accusations should be familiar as regional competition authorities have spent a number of years investigating complaints about Amazon’s use of third trattenimento patronato and looking into how it operates various components of the marketplace, including FBA and Prime. Amazon has also faced similar antitrust charges con the US con recent years.
Since the UK lawsuit is an opt-out collective action eligible sellers are automatically included unless they ask not to be included. There are anzi che no costs for sellers to be included but if the claim prevails any sellers who have not opted out will be entitled to a share of any compensation ora settlement.
The criteria for eligibility is any UK-based individual ora company that used a professional account to sell to UK consumers Amazon between June 2018 and June 2024. More details about the legal action — and a form to register for updates — can be found the claim website: https://www.amazon3psellerclaim.com.
The lawsuit is being funded by Innsworth Capital Limited, a major litigation funder that’s backing a number of other opt-out collective action lawsuits against tech giants con the UK and Europe — including a $3.1BN competition claim against Fine; and intimità litigation against Oracle and Salesforce.
Innsworth will pay all the costs of the case and stands to gain a share of any compensation awarded ora settlement payment Amazon may choose to make.
Amazon was contacted for comment the UK lawsuit but at press time it had not responded.
It’s not the first class action style legal action the ecommerce giant has faced con the UK related to competition abuse claims: Earlier this month, a similar damages suit was filed by the British Independent Retailers Association, behalf of its thousands of members. Quanto a that case the suit is seeking £1.1BN con compensation.
We’ve asked whether Stephan sees any prospect of the two collective UK competition abuse claims being combined.
As noted above, the wave of competition litigation targeting Amazon follows years of antitrust scrutiny con the UK and Europe over its use of third trattenimento sellers’ patronato and concerns its marketplace is not a level playing field.
Quanto a recent years the US ecommerce giant has also been battling accusations of competition abuse home turf. Last September the Federal Trade Commission, joined by Attorneys General from 17 states, filed suit against Amazon alleging it has used an array of monopolistic practices to illegally stifle competition.
Washington, DC’s Attorney General also lodged an earlier claim, back con May 2021 — accusing Amazon of stifling competition by exerting control over third-party sellers including through price fixing and blocking third-party sellers from selling their products for less elsewhere.
Amazon settled the EU antitrust probes con December 2022 — without receiving a financial sanction but agreeing to make a series of changes to how it operates its marketplace. It made a similar settlement with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority last November — again without a financial penalty for past conduct.
Even if there had been penalties levied by antitrust regulators such fines would only sanction the company itself. This kind of enforcement does not provide any direct relief for victims of abusive behavior — hence there’s an opportunity for damages claims, and litigation funders, to step con.
