Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) must confront customer charges that its pricing tactics violated U.S. antitrust law.
U.S. District Judge Richard Jones in Seattle ruled Friday in a potential antitrust class action with estimated damages of $55 billion to $172 billion.
In 2020, citizens of 18 states, including Virginia, Texas, California, Florida, and Illinois, sued Amazon over its stance that sellers cannot offer cheaper pricing for items offered elsewhere if they want their product on Amazon Marketplace.
Jones cut the lawsuit but let customers proceed.
The proposed class’s lead attorney, Steve Berman of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, stated, “Amazon’s principal arguments are rejected” and termed the verdict “excellent news for tens of millions of customers who Amazon has overcharged.”
Amazon declined to comment.
Amazon denies the plaintiffs’ claims, stating that its “Fair Price Policy” promotes competition and is supported by U.S. antitrust law.
Later in the dispute, the e-retail behemoth can defend its pricing methods and ask the court to bar class action lawsuits. The court wants to consider class certification briefing schedules by mid-April.
Individual consumers are also suing Amazon in Seattle federal court for raising prices on its platform.
California and D.C. attorneys general have sued Amazon over pricing policies.
Frame-Wilson et al. v. Amazon.com Inc. is the case.
E-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence are Amazon’s specialties. It is one of the world’s most valuable brands and “one of the most significant economic and cultural forces.”
It is one of the Big Five American IT corporations, along with Alphabet (Google), Apple, Meta (Facebook), and Microsoft.
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