Amazon gets sued in Britain for $1 billion over ‘favouring its own products’

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According to attorneys, Amazon.com Inc is being sued in Britain for up to $1 billion in damages over claims the online retailer exploited its dominating position by favouring its own products.

 

Julie Hunter, a champion of consumer rights, intends to file the lawsuit on behalf of all British customers who have made purchases on Amazon since October 2016, according to her legal counsel.

 

The proposed case would be the most recent large-scale action against a tech firm to be brought at London’s Competition Appeal Tribunal, which Amazon claimed was ‘without substance’ (CAT).

 

On Thursday, Hunter’s legal team, Hausfeld, claimed that Amazon had broken the law on unfair competition by deploying ‘a hidden and self-favoring algorithm’ to push its own goods through the ‘Buy Box’ feature on its website.

 

The Buy Box favours goods sold by Amazon itself or by merchants who pay Amazon to handle their logistics, according to Hunter, who made the following statement: ‘Far from being a suggestion based on price or quality. No matter how good their bids, other sellers are essentially excluded.’