Amazon is facing a £1bn damages claim on behalf of retailers selling on its UK marketplace, marking the biggest ever collective action launched by UK retailers.
The claim, which will be filed today, alleges that the ecommerce giant illegally misused the retailers’ data and manipulated the ‘Amazon Buy Box’ to benefit its commercial operation and overall revenues and profit.
The British Independent Retailers Association (BIRA) will file the claim on behalf of retailers at the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) in London.
It said that the online giant used data that belonged to UK retailers on its marketplace which was non-public and belonged solely and specifically to the retailers between October 2015 and present.
The information is alleged to have helped the retailer determine whether to enter a new product segment based on its sales potential and earnings, which elements of the item to copy, how to price a product, and which shoppers to target.
BIRA claimed the businesses were unaware that Amazon was illegally using their data for its own benefit.
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Amazon, which is also facing a legal challenge from GMB over its an alleged anti-union drive, has continually challenged claims that it misuses the information it collects from third-party companies when it makes and sells its own goods, and that it uses Buy Box to preference its own retail operations.
BIRA CEO Andrew Goodacre said: “The British public has a strong relationship with its local, independent retailers and ensuring they are not put out of business by Amazon’s illegal actions is a key driving force behind this collective action.
“The filing of the claim today is the first step towards retailers obtaining compensation for what Amazon has done.”
An Amazon spokesperson said: “We have not seen this complaint, but based on the reporting so far we are confident that it is baseless and that this will be exposed in the legal process.
“Over 100,000 small and medium sized businesses in the UK sell on Amazon’s store, more than half of all physical product sales on our UK store are from independent selling partners, and the fact is that we only succeed when the businesses we work with succeed.”
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