Apple, Amazon class action lawsuit overview:
- Who: Two consumers filed a class action lawsuit against Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc.
- Why: The plaintiffs claim the companies agreed to remove nearly all third-party Apple resellers from Amazon’s marketplace, driving up iPad prices.
- Where: The Apple and Amazon class action lawsuit was filed in Washington federal court.
A new class action lawsuit claims Amazon and Apple agreed to push nearly all third-party sellers of Apple products off the platform, raising iPad prices.
Plaintiffs Jolene Furdek and Jonathan Ryan claim Apple agreed in 2018 to supply Amazon with discounted products if Amazon limited Apple resellers on its platform. They allege the deal took effect in January 2019 and cut the number of those resellers from more than 600 to seven.
Furdek and Ryan want to represent a nationwide class of U.S. residents and entities who bought any new iPad “from the Buy Box on Amazon.com” between May 7, 2020, and the date of class notice.
The buy box is the purchase box on the top right-hand side of an Amazon product page. Several sellers, including Amazon, can offer the same product, but only one appears in the buy box at a time. “When the consumer clicks ‘Buy Now’ or ‘Add to Cart,’ the sale goes automatically to the seller in the buy box,” the Amazon and Apple class action lawsuit says.
More than 90% of Amazon’s sales go through the buy box, making it the main place sellers compete, the plaintiffs say. Amazon has said it chooses the featured seller using an algorithm that weighs price, delivery, Prime eligibility and seller performance.
Furdek and Ryan claim they bought new iPads from the buy box between 2020 and 2022, paying $399.99 to $549.98, with Amazon as the seller. They allege they would have paid less in a competitive market.
Class action lawsuit claims Amazon took over iPad buy box after deal
Before the agreement, Amazon rarely won the buy box for Apple products and made less than 1% of Apple product sales on its marketplace, the class action lawsuit claims. Afterward, Amazon became the dominant seller, free of the competition that had kept prices low.
The plaintiffs compared iPad prices with prices for Samsung Galaxy tablets, which were never subject to reseller limits. Based on that comparison, they estimate the deal added about $40 to $109 to the price of each iPad. They also argue the companies’ anti-counterfeiting justification is a pretext.
The Amazon and Apple class action lawsuit claims the companies violated the Sherman Act. The plaintiffs demand a jury trial and seek declaratory and injunctive relief, restitution, treble damages, attorneys’ fees and costs.
In a recent class action settlement, Amazon agreed to pay $8.25 million to resolve allegations that it secretly excluded customers in two Washington, D.C., ZIP codes from certain expedited Amazon Prime delivery services while continuing to charge them the full Prime membership price.
Have you bought an iPad from Amazon’s buy box? Let us know in the comments.
The plaintiffs are represented by Steve W. Berman, Ted Wojcik, Ben M. Harrington and Benjamin J. Siegel of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP.
The Apple and Amazon class action lawsuit is Furdek, et al. v. Amazon.com Inc., et al., Case No. 2:26-cv-03843, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.
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