Specifically, according to a ruling issued on June 9th, Seattle State Judge John Coughenour rejected Apple and Amazon's request to dismiss class-action lawsuits against the two companies. He stated that the "validity" of the market in question – a central issue in an antitrust dispute – had already been considered by the jury.
Apple products are sold on Amazon's website.
Judge Coughenour's ruling means the case will move to the evidence gathering and pre-trial proceedings phase. Steve Berman, the plaintiffs' lawyer, called the ruling "a major victory for Apple phone and tablet users."
This lawsuit was filed in November 2022, with the plaintiffs being primarily US citizens who purchased iPhones and iPads on Amazon since the beginning of 2019. According to the plaintiffs, prior to January 2019, there were approximately 600 third-party Apple resellers on Amazon. However, Apple and Amazon subsequently "colluded to limit" the number of these resellers. Apple allegedly agreed to lower the prices of products sold by Amazon in exchange for the e-commerce platform reducing the number of authorized Apple resellers to just seven.
Lawyers for Apple and Amazon, and representatives for the companies, have not yet commented on the allegations. In March, Apple said the agreement limiting the number of authorized dealers was put in place solely to "minimize the sale of counterfeit Apple products on Amazon's platform." Apple's lawyers called the agreement "normal" and said the Supreme Court had recognized that such agreements are legal.
According to Forbes magazine, this lawsuit is not the only legal challenge Amazon is facing regarding pricing practices. In April, California judge Rob Bonta denied Amazon's request to dismiss another antitrust lawsuit.
According to available evidence, an internal memo reveals that Amazon was complained about for policies it implemented that encouraged sellers to inflate prices on websites competing with Amazon.
Source link
Comment (0)