Apple, Amazon sued for colluding to raise iPhone and iPad prices

Specifically, according to the ruling issued on June 9, Seattle (US) judge John Coughenour rejected Apple and Amazon's request to dismiss the class action lawsuits against the two companies. He said the "validity" of the relevant market - the central issue of an antitrust dispute, had been considered by the jury.

Coughenour's ruling means the case will now move to the evidence-gathering and pre-trial stages. Steve Berman, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, called the ruling "a big win for Apple phone and tablet users."

The lawsuit was filed in November 2022 and the plaintiffs are mostly US citizens who have purchased iPhones and iPads on Amazon since early 2019. According to the plaintiffs, before January 2019, there were about 600 third-party Apple resellers on Amazon. However, Apple and Amazon "colluded to limit" the number of these resellers. Apple reportedly agreed to reduce the prices of products sold by Amazon in exchange for the e-commerce platform reducing the number of Apple authorized resellers to just seven.

Attorneys for Apple and Amazon and representatives for the companies have not yet commented on the allegations. In March, Apple said the agreement limiting the number of authorized resellers was designed solely to “reduce counterfeit Apple products sold on Amazon’s platform.” Apple’s attorneys called the agreement “common sense” and said the Supreme Court has recognized such agreements as legal.

According to Forbes , this lawsuit is not the only legal challenge Amazon is facing regarding its pricing practices. In April, California judge Rob Bonta denied Amazon’s request to dismiss another antitrust lawsuit.

According to available evidence, an internal memo shows that Amazon was being complained about the company's policies encouraging sellers to drive up prices on Amazon's competitors' websites.