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Amazon faces a $1bn (£889m) class action in the UK alleging it uses an algorithm to back its own products as well as those of third-party sellers who use its storage and delivery services.
The lawsuit is being led by law firm Hausfeld & Co LLP, which said in a press release that anyone who has lived in the UK and shopped on Amazon since October 2016 is eligible to be a claimant. The lawsuit is expected to be filed at the Competition Appeals Tribunal in London at the end of October.
The lawsuit will focus primarily on Amazon’s “Buy Box” feature, a coveted place that makes it easier for shoppers to see items, leading to more sales for merchants listed there. The box contains products from a single seller, although more sellers may offer the same item.
In a press release, the law firm detailed that it will accuse many users of falsely believing the buy box gives them the best price, but that Amazon uses a “secret” algorithm to showcase its own products or use its fulfillment and delivery Products sold by merchants serving.
The lawsuit alleges that Amazon violated competition laws, abused its dominance in e-commerce, and masked better deals by directing customers to these featured offers.
“Other sellers who don’t pay for Amazon’s fulfillment services are almost always left out of the buy box, stifling their ability to offer consumers better deals and leaving consumers out of pocket,” the law firm’s statement Say.
Amazon said the claim was “baseless”, noting that the company had been focused on supporting the 85,000 businesses that sell products in its UK market. It also said that more than half of physical product sales on the marketplace come from third-party sellers.
“We are always committed to providing our customers with low prices and fast delivery,” the company said in a prepared statement.
Amazon’s buy box and underlying preferences for certain products have long been the subject of scrutiny by regulators.
In July, Britain’s competition watchdog, the Competition and Markets Authority, said it would investigate Amazon’s alleged anti-competitive practices, including how Amazon selects items for its Buy Box.
That same month, Amazon said it would give all sellers equal treatment when ranking offers from the buy box, as part of several concessions it made to resolve two EU competition investigations.
Last year, Italian regulators fined the company 1.13 billion euros (£984 million), accusing it of stifling competition over similar problems.
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