Amazon class action lawsuits overview:
- Who: A federal panel consolidated six proposed class action lawsuits filed by consumers in several states against Amazon.com Inc. and Amazon.com Services LLC.
- Why: The panel found that the cases, which accuse Amazon of refusing to refund shoppers, share common questions of fact.
- Where: The Amazon class action lawsuits will proceed in Washington federal court.
A federal panel has centralized a group of proposed class action lawsuits accusing Amazon of denying online shoppers refunds for tariff costs.
On Oct. 2, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (MDL) sent five cases filed by consumers in Florida, Michigan, New York and Ohio to Washington federal court, where consumers filed the first Amazon lawsuit on May 15, Law360 reports.
The consumers claim Amazon raised prices to recoup the cost of tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down those tariffs in February, Amazon refused to give shoppers a tariff refund, the plaintiffs allege.
U.S. District Judge Tana Lin merged the two Washington cases in June, and the panel assigned the centralized litigation to Judge John H. Chun.
Amazon and the Washington plaintiffs supported centralization, but plaintiffs from Florida, Michigan, New York, Ohio and New Jersey raised several arguments against an Amazon-specific MDL.
Tariff refund case from New Jersey may join Amazon lawsuit
The panel issued a conditional order on Oct. 5 to transfer another case from New Jersey. The order states that the case appears to involve questions of fact common to those already sent to Judge Chun. The transfer is not yet finalized.
Centralization puts evidence gathering and class certification rulings before one judge, which the panel said would prevent duplicated effort and inconsistent rulings, according to Law360.
The plaintiffs outside Washington asked the panel to wait until its next hearing session to consider a separate motion to consolidate all the cases into one proceeding. However, the panel refused, saying the delay would be unnecessary.
Meanwhile, in September, Walmart faced two additional tariff class action lawsuits, while similar lawsuits targeted Puma, Abercrombie & Fitch and fitness equipment company Peloton.
Do you think Amazon owes shoppers a refund? Let us know in the comments.
The plaintiffs are represented by Hunter J. Shkolnik, Salvatore C. Badala and Shayna E. Sacks of Napoli Shkolnik; Stuart A. Davidson of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP; Michael J. Fuller Jr. of Farrell & Fuller LLC; Steve W. Berman, Sydney K. Thomas, Christopher R. Pitoun and Dana Abelson of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP; and Kelly L. Tucker, Matthew Denn and Thomas Walsh of Grant & Eisenhofer P.A.
The Amazon multidistrict litigation is In re: Amazon Tariff Litigation, MDL No. 3197, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.
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