A UK tribunal has allowed part of a consumer lawsuit against Apple and Amazon to move forward. The claim says a 2018 agreement between the two companies limited which sellers could offer Apple and Beats products on Amazon’s UK website, which reduced competition and pushed prices up for shoppers.
The Competition Appeal Tribunal made the ruling on Monday, September 28, as detailed in a Reuters report. It let claims over Apple products bought through Amazon’s marketplace proceed. It rejected a separate claim covering products bought directly from Apple and from other retailers.
The tribunal found the Amazon marketplace claim credible and dropped the wider retail claim
Judge Kelyn Bacon said the marketplace claims were “plausible, credible and grounded in the facts.” The tribunal ruled there was a realistic basis for arguing that limits placed on resellers could have led to higher prices for people buying Apple products through Amazon.
The claim covering Apple’s own stores and other retailers did not survive. The tribunal called the theory behind it complex and speculative, and said there was not enough evidence at this stage to show the alleged conduct also raised prices outside Amazon.
This is the second attempt at the case. The tribunal refused a largely similar lawsuit last year, brought by consumer law academic Christine Riefa, because of concerns about the proposed class representative and the litigation funding. Justin Le Patourel later replaced her as the proposed representative and refiled the claim.
Apple says the Amazon deal was meant to fight counterfeits
An Apple spokesperson said the company “strongly” disagrees with the claims. Apple’s stated aim in reaching the agreement with Amazon was to tackle counterfeit products on the marketplace.
Amazon welcomed the decision and called the remaining claim meritless. The company said it is confident that will become clear as the case goes on. A spokesperson for Le Patourel welcomed the ruling too, but said it was disappointing that parts of the claim were not certified.
Regulators elsewhere have looked at a similar arrangement. Spain’s competition authority opened a case into Apple and Amazon in 2021 over possible restrictions on third-party sellers of Apple products on Amazon’s Spanish site.
Apple is also dealing with a separate ruling in the UK, where the same tribunal found Apple overcharged App Store developers in a case carrying a £1.5 billion damages claim.
The claimant says the part of the Amazon case that can now proceed could be worth between £289 million ($383 million) and £306 million, including interest.
