Amazon faces UK lawsuits up to $5.6 billion by retailers, consumers
The lawsuits, brought on behalf of third-party sellers and consumers, allege that Amazon abused its dominant market position by manipulating its website's "Buy Box" feature to give unfair advantage to its own logistics operations.
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Amazon is facing a major legal challenge in the UK, as two class action lawsuits worth up to 4 billion pounds (approx $5.6 billion) were given the green light to proceed by the Competition Appeal Tribunal on Thursday, as per a Reuters report.
The lawsuits, brought on behalf of third-party sellers and consumers, allege that Amazon abused its dominant market position by manipulating its website's "Buy Box" feature to give unfair advantage to its own logistics operations.
One of the suits, led by competition law academic Andreas Stephan, is on behalf of more than 200,000 third-party retailers, the reports added. Valued at up to 2.7 billion pounds, the case argues that Amazon systematically disadvantaged sellers who did not use its in-house fulfilment work, pushing their products out of the highly visible "Buy Box" - a critical driver of sales on the platform.
According to the report, a separate case, spearheaded by consumer advocate Robert Hammond, targets Amazon's alleged anti-competitive practices from the perspective of millions of customers. The 1.3 billion pounds suit claims consumers were deprived of better deals because Amazon favoured listings tied to its own logistics and delivery services.
Both lawsuits were certified on an opt-out basis, meaning all affected retailers and consumers in the UK will automatically be included in the cases unless they explicitly choose not to participate.
Amazon pushed back against the claims, arguing that the cases could not proceed due to what it called flawed economic methodologies.
As per the report, a company spokesperson said, "These claims are without merit and we're confident that will become clear through the legal process.”
The spokesperson added that Amazon continues to support the 100,000 businesses selling on its UK store, with more than half of all physical product sales coming from independent selling partners.
