THE BUY BOX CLAIM AGAINST AMAZON
Legal proceedings against Amazon claiming more than £1 Billion for the way the “Buy Box” algorithm allegedly violates UK competition laws.
THE CLAIM AGAINST AMAZON
Consumer champion Robert Hammond has engaged with Charles Lyndon and Hagens Berman to launch a lawsuit against tech giant Amazon for more than £1 billion on behalf of 49.4 million UK consumers.
Hammond alleges that Amazon has a special responsibility as a dominant company in the e-commerce marketplace, under UK’s Competition law. However, it is alleged that it acted against its obligations and manipulated its UK consumers by placing its own offers, as well as those by selected third-party sellers that pay for Amazon’s extra services, in a prominent display called the “Buy Box”. UK consumers bought the products in the Buy Box, even though similar and cheaper offers from other third-party sellers were available but were much harder to find on Amazon’s website and App. As a result, it is estimated UK consumers have overpaid by more than £1 billion for products purchased between 1 October 2015 and 1 June 2020.
Who Is involved?
All UK consumers who purchased products from Amazon’s marketplace, at www.amazon.co.uk, from 1 October 2015 to at least 1 June 2020 may be eligible for compensation. As a preliminary estimate, we believe 49.4 million individuals were affected.
All UK consumers who live/lived in the UK, as of a certain date, will be automatically included in the class, unless anyone chooses to “opt-out”. However, any non-UK residents who would otherwise be eligible to claim will need to “opt-in” to the proceedings. Further details on opting in and out of the proceedings can be found in the claim website, here.
The Buy Box Claim: Case History
Robert Hammond has instructed us and Hagens Berman to act on behalf of all affected UK consumers. Mr. Hammond is an experienced consumer-rights advocate, working for over 20 years with public organisations such as Citizens Advice and Ofcom. He was also a qualified solicitor and worked in private practice for 10 years.
On 7 June 2023, we filed the claim against Amazon before the Competition Appeal Tribunal, a specialist UK court that deals with collective proceedings such as this one. To find out more about the claim, and to stay up to date, please visit www.claimagainstamazon.com.
Charles Lyndon: Breaking ground
Rodger Burnett, lawyer and director of Charles Lyndon, said:
“Charles Lyndon has worked extensively with Robert Hammond to develop this case which seeks to recover compensation on behalf of millions of UK consumers who have overpaid for products bought off of Amazon’s e-commerce marketplace at www.amazon.co.uk. We are motivated to bring this case before the Competition Appeal Tribunal, along with our co-counsel Hagens Berman. We hope that as a result of this action, Amazon repays UK consumers the amounts of overpayments due to them and to improve the manner that it operates its e-commerce platform in line with its responsibility as a dominant company under UK Competition law.”
Lets Talk…
If you have any questions about a specific case we are working on, would like to discuss us representing you or want to know more about who we are and what we do, then speak to our team. We will get back to you as soon as possible.