Amazon Braces for Yet Another Class Action Lawsuit

• Author: William Asher
• Posted: 2024-05-28

Amazon is one of the biggest corporations in the history of the planet. It makes so much every year that it's really hard to calculate. Most estimates have Amazon making around $1.4 billion every single day, and these numbers are in a constant state of flux. For instance, in America, during the COVID pandemic when the government shut down most of America's small businesses, Amazon was far and away the biggest recipient of a wealth transfer in human history. Trillions of dollars came pouring through the site and its many subsidiaries. Being this large, Amazon is also no stranger to class action lawsuits. They have dealt with dozens of them over the years, and have paid out billions in settlements and lawyer fees. News broke earlier this week about a new class action lawsuit filed against Amazon, a $1 billion suit that's focused on Amazon's Buy Box feature.

This lawsuit is coming out of the UK, London specifically. It is being filed at London's Competition Appeal Tribunal, and it's focusing on any potential customers of Amazon in the UK since 2016, so there could end up being thousands of people in this class action. This new class action is just like most of the others that have been filed against Amazon. In short, the lawsuit alleges that Amazon purposefully used nefarious algorithms in order to promote its own in-house products instead of allowing organic results for other users' products. This is something that Amazon has been doing for years. They've lost various lawsuits already that have alleged the company will bury someone's product, make their own version of it, and push the Amazon knockoff in place of the original. Though despite being caught doing this many times, people are still alleging this is a common Amazon practice.

Then again, Amazon is the company that was caught refusing to give their employees a bathroom break; and instead of changing their policy, they just fired employees and hired a bunch of new ones. There's something about these huge corporations in the western world that seem intent on working against people instead of with them, and then just buying their way out of trouble. Amazon is currently airing dozens of different commercial spots featuring people of color speaking about how they found excellent careers with Amazon. Amazon is also paying other large platforms like YouTube to censor content that's critical of their corporation.

The point here is that Amazon has proven time and again that they're not the good guys in these lawsuits. Will this particular class action be any different? Only time will tell, but it isn't looking good for them at the moment. All initial evidence seems to suggest that Amazon was doing exactly what was alleged and intentionally harming small businesses and entrepreneurial start-ups in order to further enrich Amazon.

Corporations Are Prepared

An unfortunate reality of these sorts of civil suits is that corporations are fully prepared. They have the best layers on retainer, and they create funds specifically to buy people off so that they don't end up being stained in the public eye by a guilty verdict It's something that can be seen thousands of times every year, and many times with Amazon specifically. That is not to pass judgement and say that this new Buy Box lawsuit means Amazon is guilty. It's just a reminder that Amazon has bought its way out of similar allegations many times over. Corporations like Amazon are fully prepared to do battle in the courts. And why wouldn't they be? They already have the lawyers, and it's not causing them to put their business on hold. However, if you're part of the class suing Amazon, it may completely cripple you and cost you your job, your savings, etc.

The western world is set up in such a way that these corporations are allowed to continue profiting, even when they're involved in civil litigation that alleges they're profiting unfairly. Normal people do not get this luxury; this is something only large corporations can do.

Competition law in the UK is a lot stricter than it is in the USA, and so Amazon may not be able to settle so quickly here. There is a very high likelihood that the UK lawyers and the class they put together may want to take Amazon past the finish line in order to prove wrongdoing. Then again, Amazon could also settle for the amount being asked and never bat an eye. It's less than a full day's profit for the corporation.