A class action is underway against Amazon, as nearly 300 million consumers seek justice for what they claim are artificially inflated prices caused by Amazon’s anti-discount policy imposed on marketplace merchants.
Class Certification and Consumer Reach
Consumers, led by attorneys Steve Berman of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP and a coalition including Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP and Keller Postman LLC, asked a Washington federal judge to certify a class comprising 288 million customers who made tens of billions of purchases from over 2.5 million third-party sellers from May 2017 onward.
This sprawling class action—De Coster, et al. v. Amazon.com Inc., Case No. 2:21-cv-00693, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington—is now recognized as one of the largest ever certified in U.S. https://www.hbsslaw.com/press/amazoncom-antitrust-de-coster/judge-certifies-largest-class-in-us-history-in-consumer-antitrust-lawsuit-against-amazon. Judge John Chun unsealed his class-certifying order on September 2, 2025 and commented, The court finds that plaintiffs have met their burden regarding commonality, predominance, and the rule’s other requirements.
Details of the Alleged Amazon Practices
Plaintiffs argue Amazon forced an “anti-discount policy” upon third-party sellers, actively monitoring the marketplace and using billions of autogenerated messages to ensure strict price parity. Sellers offering lower prices on other platforms were penalized: Amazon’s Select Competitor Featured Offer Disqualification (SC-FOD) and “Buy Box” algorithm would block their products from prominent placement if competing prices were better elsewhere.
The written price parity clause was removed from Amazon’s public seller agreement in 2019. However, plaintiffs allege the policy was embedded into newer agreements like the Seller Code of Conduct and Business Services Agreement, marking a de facto continuation of the disputed practice. Amazon denies that any ongoing parity policy exists and is currently appealing the size and scope of the class certification.
Antitrust Implications and Market Impact
Plaintiffs claim that Amazon’s restrictions prevent healthy competition, allowing Amazon to charge excessive fees to sellers, ultimately passing inflated costs to consumers. “We consider there are strong grounds to argue that consumers have paid higher prices because of Amazon’s pricing policies,” commented Matthew Maxwell-Scott, founder of the UK’s Association of Consumer Support Organisations (ACSO), which has launched parallel legal action against Amazon in the UK.
Amazon’s control over pricing is alleged to reduce competition, hurt small sellers, and diminish consumer choice. At the heart of the class action is the assertion that the case highlights a single critical question common to the entire class—whether Amazon’s pricing practices constitute unlawful antitrust violations
Defense Arguments and Company Response
Amazon, represented by John A. Goldmark of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP and teams from Dunn Isaacson Rhee LLP, contends that the claims differ too greatly by product and seller to be litigated as a class. The company argues that its practices do not harm consumer welfare, insisting the class is too big to certify and that the parity policy ended years ago.
Plaintiffs maintain that class action is the only feasible method to address widespread price fixing, asserting “the class action rule exists to adjudicate a common issue, such as the one raised in the Amazon class action lawsuit, which could never be pursued on an individual basis”.
Legal Milestones and Next Steps
The case has drawn major national headlines and fueled debate about platform accountability. Plaintiffs cite evidence, including Amazon’s internal documents, that show the company’s awareness of both the harmful impact on third-party sellers and the resulting artificially increased prices paid by its own customers.
Although Amazon removed the explicit parity language from seller contracts, plaintiffs allege the practical implementation of price parity persists. With litigation ongoing, a federal judge has already granted class certification to tens of millions of impacted U.S. consumers.
Ongoing Developments
Other regulatory bodies, including the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), recently secured a record settlement from Amazon over related consumer protection issues, with billions in compensation and civil penalties, for deceptive Prime subscription practices. While unrelated, these actions set the stage for increased scrutiny of Amazon’s marketplace rules.
How Consumers Can Stay Informed
Consumers impacted by price parity policies or those wishing to join the class action should monitor updates from Top Class Actions, official court dockets, and advocacy groups. For more information on ongoing lawsuits and settlements, visit Top Class Actions’ consumer news section.
This class action could rewrite the rules of e-commerce pricing, forcing Amazon and other platforms to make pricing fairer, transparent, and competitive for sellers and buyers alike.
