Apple, Amazon allegedly ‘colluded’ to sell iPhones and iPads at expensive prices, facing lawsuit: Report

By Team Newsable | First Published Nov 10, 2022, 6:03 PM IST

The lawsuit alleges that Apple and Amazon teamed up to bring the number of third-party sellers of Apple products on Amazon Marketplace from roughly 600 to just seven sellers using anti-competitive methods.

Apple and Amazon allegedly colluded to increase the prices of iPhone and iPads on the platform. According to media reports, Hagens Berman, a legal company, reports that a new anti-trust class-action complaint has been brought against the digital giants for removing independent Apple dealers from Amazon Marketplace in order to limit competition and maintain high prices for Apple items. According to Hagens Berman attorneys, the class action alleges a "wrongful horizontal agreement between Apple and Amazon to remove or at least significantly limit the competitive threat provided by third-party merchants," which is illegal and has cost customers money.

The complaint claims that the unlawful arrangement between Apple and Amazon reduced the number of independent retailers of Apple products on Amazon from over 600 to just seven vendors. This is said to have aided Amazon in taking the lead among platform sellers of Apple goods.

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According to the complaint, Apple and Amazon agreed to limit the number of Apple dealers present on the market at the start of 2019 in exchange for Amazon providing a lower wholesale pricing for iPhones and iPads.

Consumers, who were unprepared for the price rises, were the sole losers when Apple and Amazon extended their reseller arrangement in 2019, according to Berman. The lawsuit continued, "Consumers now become trapped into Apple's premium pricing, while they used to be able to get reduced rates of upwards of 20% for iPhones and iPads for sale on Amazon Marketplace."

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The legal firm is suing in order to obtain compensation for customers who overpaid for iPads and iPhones that were subject to the programme as well as an injunction to stop it from happening again.

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