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A new collective action filed with the Competition Appeal Tribunal alleges that Amazon has breached competition law by implementing price parity policies that prevent or strongly discourage third-party sellers from charging lower prices for their products on other e-commerce platforms and their own websites.
The proposed class representative, the Association of Consumer Support Organisations (“ACSO”), alleges that the price parity policies, which are monitored and enforced by Amazon, unlawfully protect Amazon from price competition from other e-commerce platforms, thereby strengthening Amazon’s market dominance and enabling Amazon to charge third-party sellers higher marketplace fees than would otherwise be the case absent Amazon’s price parity policies. Third-party sellers in turn pass on Amazon’s inflated marketplace fees to consumers by charging higher prices for the products they sell on Amazon’s UK marketplace.
The claim has been widely publicised, including by the Telegraph, MLex, The Lawyer, Law360, Law.com, ICLG News and CDR News.
Ben Lask KC, Luke Kelly and Jenn Lawrence are acting on behalf of ACSO, instructed by Stephenson Harwood.