
“The suit claims that Amazon is violating tying laws under the #ShermanAct by forcing sellers on its platform to use its fulfillment services, as opposed to its competitors’ such as FedEx and UPS by only showing shoppers these products on its website.” Beth Terrell and Adrienne McEntee of Terrell Marshall Law Group PLLC
The hidden nuclear problem of #ecommerce now slowly emerges. This class action, barely mentioned in the press, claims $5 billion in damages in 2020 alone. Three similar cases were also filed against Amazon, one last year, and another two earlier this year, all on the basis of MFNs with the third party sellers.
Amazon Home Services has done the same exact thing, largely, under the radar.
The problem of price fixing of services of others via the Internet is the hidden sledgehammer falling down on raked e-commerce with hundreds of billions (billions with a B) in damages due back to consumers.
The lesson here is crystal clear: price fixing is a felony and the class action damages are a massive risk to those willing to engage in it, specifically, in #travel #realestate #consumergoods and #gigeconomy sectors.
#amazon #antitrust #bigtech #ecommerce #ftcact #pricefixing #marketplaces #collusion #consumers #classaction Federal Trade Commission U.S. Department of Justice