Apple and Amazon Face £900M UK Lawsuit Over Price-Fixing Claims
A new class-action claim alleges the tech giants colluded to restrict third-party sellers on Amazon's marketplace, leading to higher prices for consumers.
Apple and Amazon are facing a fresh £900 million (approximately $1.1 billion) legal action in the UK, alleging the two technology behemoths unlawfully colluded to inflate the prices of Apple and Beats products sold on Amazon’s platform.
The class-action claim, filed at London's Competition Appeal Tribunal, revives a legal challenge that was previously dismissed on technical grounds. It centers on a 2018 agreement between the companies that the lawsuit alleges restricted independent merchants from selling Apple products. According to the claim, this arrangement limited competitive pressure and resulted in UK consumers overpaying.
The action is being brought by consumer rights advocate Justin Le Patourel, with legal representation from the firm Hausfeld. It seeks to recover damages for millions of UK customers who purchased new Apple or Beats products on Amazon’s UK marketplace since October 2018.
"We believe that Apple and Amazon have worked together to exclude independent sellers of Apple and Beats products from the Amazon platform," a statement from the law firm Hausfeld noted. "This has led to a reduction in the choice available to consumers and, ultimately, to them paying higher prices."
Shares of Apple (AAPL), which has a market capitalization of over $4 trillion, showed little reaction to the news, closing down about 1.5% at $274.11 in Tuesday trading, a move largely in line with the broader market.
This legal challenge represents another front in the intensifying regulatory scrutiny facing Apple and other major technology firms across Europe and the United States. The company is already a primary target of the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA), which aims to curb the power of 'gatekeeper' tech platforms. Regulators are actively investigating Apple's App Store policies and other business practices for compliance with the new rules.
In the U.S., Apple is facing a landmark antitrust lawsuit from the Department of Justice, which accuses the company of operating an illegal monopoly in the smartphone market. This new UK claim, while separate, adds to the narrative of alleged anti-competitive behavior that regulators are keen to address.
The lawsuit follows a similar £500 million case brought by another claimant that the same tribunal dismissed in January 2025. The court's decision at that time was not based on the merits of the collusion allegations but on concerns regarding the independence of the proposed class representative. The new £900 million claim, fronted by a different representative, aims to overcome those procedural hurdles.
Similar arrangements between Apple and Amazon have already faced penalties in other parts of Europe. In 2021, Italian regulators fined both companies over €200 million for a comparable agreement, though that decision was later overturned. Authorities in Spain also fined the companies €194 million for colluding to the detriment of other resellers on Amazon's Spanish websites.
The current UK case will now proceed before the Competition Appeal Tribunal, which will assess whether the collective action can move forward. If certified, it could become one of the UK's most significant class-action lawsuits, potentially setting a precedent for how online marketplaces and dominant brands can operate.