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Title: Amazon Must Face US Nationwide Class Action Over Third-Party Sales

Link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/09/03/02172...

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Amazon.com must face a
class action on behalf of hundreds of millions of U.S. consumers over claims
that the online retail giant overcharged for products sold by third-party
sellers, a federal judge in Seattle has ruled. U.S. District Judge John Chun
in an order (PDF) unsealed on Friday certified a nationwide class involving
288 million customers and billions of transactions, marking one of the
largest-ever in the United States. The class includes buyers in the United
States who purchased five or more new goods from third-party sellers on
Amazon since May 26, 2017. The consumers' 2021 lawsuit said Amazon violated
antitrust law by restricting third-party sellers from offering their products
for lower prices elsewhere on rival platforms while they are also for sale on
Amazon. Amazon's policies have allowed the company to impose inflated fees on
sellers, causing shoppers to pay higher prices for purchases, the lawsuit
said. Amazon has denied any wrongdoing. It has already appealed Chun's class
certification order, which was first issued under seal on Aug. 6. Amazon
argued that the class was too large to be manageable and that the plaintiffs
failed to show its alleged conduct had a widespread effect. Amazon also said
that since 2019 it has not used a pricing program that the plaintiffs
challenged. Chun found there was no evidence at this stage that the size of
the class was overbroad. Other federal courts had certified class actions
with millions or hundreds of millions of class members, the judge said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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