Apple Inc. and Amazon.com, Inc. are being sued by consumers for trade violations. They are accused of working together to raise the prices of iPhones and iPads sold on Amazon.com.
An important decision was made by a federal judge in Seattle. He said that Apple and Amazon must face a consumer antitrust case in the U.S. According to Reuters, the case says that the two tech giants worked together to artificially raise the prices of iPhones and iPads sold on Amazon’s platform.
U.S. District Judge John Coughenour made the decision after both Apple and Amazon tried to get the case thrown out on different legal lines. The judge stressed that a jury would decide the “validity” of the relevant market, which is a key part of an antitrust case.
The case says that in 2018, there were about 600 third-party sellers of Apple products on Amazon. The respondents live in the United States and bought new iPhones and iPads from Amazon starting in January 2019.
They say that a deal between Apple and Amazon cut down on the number of competitors, which is against antitrust laws. It is said that Apple gave Amazon a discount on its goods in exchange for Amazon getting rid of some of its resellers.
In its defence, Apple says that the deal was made to stop Amazon from selling fake Apple products.
This means that the case will move on to gathering proof and other pre-trial steps. The story said that the court will talk about why Apple and Amazon made the deal at a later point in the case.
The lawsuit in question was made in November. It is one of a number of lawsuits brought by private parties and the government against Amazon’s online pricing policies. The complaint asks for triple damages and other kinds of help that are not defined.
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