£1 billion damages claim filed against Amazon by UK retailers

The claim, the biggest collective action ever launched by UK retailers, is being brought by the British Independent Retailers Association (BIRA) on behalf of retailers at the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) in London.

It asserts that between October 2015 and the present date, Amazon used data belonging to UK retailers on the company’s marketplace – data that is non-public and belongs solely and specifically to the retailers – in combination with manipulating the Amazon Buy Box, to engage in a product entry strategy that resulted in sales revenue and profits being diverted from these retailers to Amazon.

Such commercially valuable and confidential information helps Amazon decide whether to enter a new product segment based on its earnings and sales potential, which elements of the product to copy, how to price an item, and which consumers to target.

That information in combination with the Buy Box, meant Amazon knew it could successfully enter and take away profits from UK retailers. The retailers, many of whom are small independent UK businesses, were unaware that Amazon was illegally using their data to benefit its own retail operation. Amazon was already charging them a…