Apple and Amazon face revived UK consumer lawsuit over product sales

Britain’s Competition Appeal Tribunal on Monday allowed part of a consumer lawsuit against Apple and Amazon ⁠to proceed over claims they restricted competition in the sale of Apple products on Amazon’s UK marketplace.

The lawsuit alleges Apple and Amazon agreed in 2018 to limit ⁠which sellers could ‌offer Apple and Beats-branded ⁠products on Amazon’s UK website, reducing competition and inflating prices. The three-judge tribunal allowed claims relating to Apple products ​bought through ​Amazon’s marketplace to proceed, but rejected a broader claim covering products bought directly from Apple and other retailers.

The part of the case allowed to ‌proceed could ​be worth between £289 million ($383 million) and £306 million, including interest, according to ‌the claimant. Judge Kelyn Bacon ⁠said claims relating to Amazon marketplace purchases were “plausible, credible, ‌and grounded in the facts”, but rejected wider claims relating to other retailers because they rested on a “complex and speculative theory of harm.”

The tribunal had refused last year to allow a largely ​similar lawsuit brought by consumer law academic Christine Riefa to go ahead because of concerns about the proposed class representative and litigation ​funding arrangements. The ‌claim ​was later refiled by Justin Le Patourel, who replaced ‌Riefa ‌as the proposed representative of consumers.

In its ruling, the tribunal said there was a realistic basis for arguing that restrictions on resellers ⁠could have led to higher prices for consumers buying Apple products through Amazon. However, it said there was ‌not enough evidence at this stage ​to support claims that the alleged conduct also increased prices for Apple products sold through Apple’s own stores or by ‌other retailers.