Amazon: Why some iPhone users have dragged Apple and Amazon to court over iPhone, iPad prices in the US – Times of India

Apple and Amazon.com must face a consumer antitrust lawsuit in US court accusing them of conspiring to artificially inflate the price of iPhones and iPads sold on Amazon’s platform, a federal judge in Seattle ruled as per a report in news agency Reuters. The US District Judge John Coughenour reportedly rejected bids from Apple and Amazon to dismiss the prospective class action on various legal grounds.
Coughenour said the “validity” of the relevant market, a central issue in antitrust litigation, was a question for a jury. The ruling means the case will move forward to evidence-gathering and other pretrial proceedings.
What is the lawsuit about
The lawsuit filed in November 2022 is among several private and government actions challenging Amazon’s online price practices. The plaintiffs are US residents who bought new iPhones and iPads on Amazon beginning in January 2019. They claim that an agreement between Apple and Amazon went into effect that year that restricted the number of competitive resellers in violation of antitrust provisions.
The lawsuit claims that in 2018, there were some 600 third-party Apple resellers on Amazon. It further alleges that Apple agreed to give Amazon a discount on its products if Amazon reduced the number of Apple resellers from its marketplace.
What Apple says
Apple on its part has argued that its agreement with Amazon limited the number of authorized resellers with the aim to help minimize counterfeit Apple goods being sold on the e-commerce platform. In a court filing, Apple’s attorneys called the agreement “commonplace” and said that the “Supreme Court and Ninth Circuit have routinely recognized that such agreements are procompetitive and lawful.”