Amazon discrimination class action lawsuit overview:
- Who: Andreas Stephan, head of the law school at the University of East Anglia filed a £2.7 billion class action lawsuit against Amazon.
- Why: Stephan claims Amazon discriminates against third-party sellers on its e-commerce platform by favoring its own retail offers and making it harder for third-party sellers to sell their items for a lower price on a different platform.
- Where: The class action lawsuit was filed with the Competition Appeal Tribunal.
Amazon discriminates against third-party sellers on its e-commerce platform, a new £2.7 billion class action lawsuit alleges.
Plaintiff Andreas Stephan’s class action lawsuit claims Amazon abuses its dominant place in the industry by favoring its own retail offers while discriminating against the more-than 200,000 U.K sellers who use its platform, reports Law360.
Stephan, the head of the law school at the University of East Anglia, argues Amazon makes it difficult for third-party sellers to sell their items for a cheaper price on a different platform than Amazon.
“Amazon has engaged in a variety of strategies to grow its e-commerce platform, lock sellers into it, prevent the expansion of rivals, and use its market dominance to exploit the hundreds of thousands of sellers,” the Amazon class action says, as reported by Law360.
Amazon class action brought on an opt-out basis for third-party sellers
The class action lawsuit, which was brought on an opt-out basis, was filed with the Competition Appeal Tribunal last week, reports Law360.
Stephan reportedly wants to represent a nationwide class of individuals and companies who used a professional selling account on Amazon to sell products to British consumers between June 2018 and June 2024.
A consumer advocate filed a separate class action lawsuit against Amazon last year over claims it manipulates search results on its marketplace with its “Buy Box” algorithm, which he argued favours products that are more profitable for Amazon.
The consumer advocate, Robert Hammond, sought to represent a class of an estimated 49.4 million consumers in the U.K who he argued have had to overpay by more than £1 billion for products bought on Amazon Marketplace.
“My economic experts have evidenced the real harm that consumers have suffered as a result of Amazon’s abuse of market dominance and I hope this case can help consumers receive redress for the corporation’s behaviour,” Hammon said, in a statement at the time.
Have you used a professional account to sell products on Amazon? Let us know in the comments.
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