Apple, Amazon sued for colluding to raise iPhone and iPad prices

Specifically, according to the verdict issued on June 9, Seattle (US) judge John Coughenour rejected Apple and Amazon's request to dismiss the class action lawsuits against the two companies. He said the "validity" of the relevant market - the central issue of an antitrust dispute, had been considered by the jury.

Apple products are sold on Amazon's website.

Mr. Coughenour's ruling means the case will now move to the evidence-gathering and pretrial stages. Mr. Steve Berman, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, called the ruling "a big victory for Apple phone and tablet users."

The lawsuit was filed in November 2022 and the plaintiffs are mainly US citizens who have purchased iPhones and iPads on Amazon since the beginning of 2019. According to the plaintiffs, before January 2019, there were about 600 third-party Apple resellers on Amazon. However, Apple and Amazon "colluded to limit" the number of these resellers. Apple is said to have agreed to reduce the prices of products sold by Amazon in exchange for the e-commerce platform reducing the number of Apple authorized resellers to just 7.

Attorneys 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 resellers was designed solely to “reduce counterfeit Apple products sold on Amazon’s platform.” Apple lawyers called the agreement “normal” and said the Supreme Court has recognized that such agreements are legal.

According to Forbes magazine, this lawsuit is not the only legal challenge Amazon is facing regarding its pricing practices. In April, Mr. Rob Bonta, a judge in the state of California (USA), rejected Amazon's request to dismiss another antitrust lawsuit.

According to available evidence, an internal memo shows that Amazon was being complained about the company's policies encouraging sellers to drive up prices on Amazon's competitors' websites.

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