A collective of UK retailers is suing Amazon for up to 拢1.1 billion in damages, alleging that the tech giant misused data from smaller sellers to benefit its own operations.
The class action has been filed to London鈥檚 Competition Appeal Tribunal on behalf of the British Independent Retailers Association – and by proxy the approximately 35,000 retailers selling on Amazon鈥檚 UK marketplace – by law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher.
Should the tribunal decide to proceed with the class action, a trial would follow in 2026 or later – unless Amazon settles with the retailers beforehand.
The allegations are centred on the claim that between October 2015 and the present date, Amazon illegally used data from independent UK retailers to determine which products it should create and sell itself; at what price they should be sold; then marketed them ahead of these now rival products.
With more than 80% of purchases on Amazon鈥檚 UK platforms made using the 鈥榖uy now鈥� or 鈥榓dd to basket鈥� buttons – dubbed the 鈥榖uy box鈥� – Bira also alleges that it manipulated this to favour its own products and conceal those belonging to rival sellers.
鈥淭he filing of the claim today (Thursday) is the first step towards retailers obtaining compensation for what Amazon has done,鈥� said Bira chief executive Andrew Goodacre.
鈥淚 am confident that the CAT will authorise the claim to go forward, and I look forward to the opportunity to present the case on behalf of UK retailers.
“The British public has a strong relationship with its local, independent retailers and ensuring they are not put out of business by Amazon’s illegal actions is a key driving force behind this collective action.聽
鈥淭his is a watershed moment for UK retailers, but especially for small independent retailers in this country.鈥�
In 2022, the Competition and Market Authority launched an investigation into whether Amazon was abusing its dominant position in the UK retail landscape. Last year the watchdog secured commitments from the firm around competitive practices.
An Amazon spokesperson said: 鈥淲e have not seen this complaint, but based on the reporting so far we are confident that it is baseless and that this will be exposed in the legal process. Over 100,000 small and medium sized businesses in the UK sell on Amazon鈥檚 store, more than half of all physical product sales on our UK store are from independent selling partners, and the fact is that we only succeed when the businesses we work with succeed.鈥�