Apple and Amazon will continue to face a consumer antitrust lawsuit in the United States court for artificially increasing the prices of iPhones and iPads on Amazon's online retail platform. Both companies' bid to dismiss the prospective class action was rejected.
In this photograph taken on November 18, 2020 in Lille, a person poses with a smartphone showing an Amazon logo, in front of a computer screen displaying the home page of Amazon France sales website. - Elected officials and associations calling for a boycott, small shopkeepers denouncing unfair competition, trade unions protesting against harsh working conditions: the online sales giant Amazon is once again at the centre of criticism in France. An open letter signed by some 120 lawmakers, union leaders, NGOs and business owners on November 16 called for a special tax on Amazon and other "profiteers from the crisis".
Rejecting Bid to Dismiss Lawsuit
United States District Judge John Coughenour rejected the bids from Apple and Amazon to dismiss the consumer antitrust law for allegedly inflating the price of iPhones and iPads on the online retail platform Amazon. According to a report from Phone Arena, Coughenour said in his ruling that the jury questioned the validity of the relevant market.
This means that the lawsuit will continue to progress as the plaintiffs collect more evidence as the court hosts pretrial proceedings. As the court rejected the bid, Plaintiffs Lawyer Steve Berman stated, "This is a major win for consumers of Apple phones and iPads."
Berman represents the residents from the United States who bought new iPhones and iPads on Amazon beginning in January 2019, which contend an agreement between both companies that went into effect in the same year restricted the number of competitive resellers in violation of antitrust provisions.
Filing Lawsuit
However, Apple and Amazon argued in a motion to dismiss in March that the agreement limited the number of verified resellers to combat the selling of counterfeit products. But as per the new filing, the case still needs to move through an evidence-gathering process as the district judge rejects the request for dismissal.
Reuters reported that the attorneys of Apple called the agreement "commonplace" and stated that the Supreme Court and Ninth Circuit have consistently recognized that such agreements are not illegal, pro-competitive, and lawful. But the Seattle judge argued that its "countervailing" motivations for the agreement would be addressed later in the litigation.
Apple already gained $94.8 billion in sales in the second quarter and $127.4 billion for Amazon on its recently reported quarterly earning. Steven Floyd v Amazon.com Inc and Apple Inc seeks both companies' unspecified triple damages and other relief as a settlement.
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Amazon also faces another pricing practices lawsuit. As per Forbes' report, a California state court judge denied the company's request to dismiss another antitrust lawsuit from CA Attorney General Rob Bonta for allegedly forcing third-party sellers to adopt policies to increase prices in the market.
These agreements threatened the seller's penalties for merchants offering lower website prices. Once this succeeds, Amazon would be forced to increase prices and argue that consumers would pay more for their offerings.
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