Amazon has reached a settlement with the UK's competition watchdog over its use of Marketplace seller data, but third-party sellers are still unhappy with the e-commerce giant.
The British Independent Retailers Association (BIRA), which represents thousands of members, has announced it will file a £1.1bn damages claim against Amazon.
The lawsuit alleges that Amazon illegally misused members' proprietary data for competitive purposes and manipulated the Buy Box to further its own interests.
British independent retailers versus Amazon
The 'Buy Box', where the 'Buy Now' and 'Add to Cart' options are located, uses an algorithm to determine which retailer's offer is featured. Since few shoppers explore alternative sellers and instead opt for the seemingly preferred retailer, Amazon's algorithm could have a big impact on retailers' performance on the online shopping platform.
Third-party sellers on the platform must also pay a 30% commission to Amazon for each sale made on the platform.
Andrew Goodacre, chief executive of BIRA, commented: “If small businesses want to sell online, Amazon is the dominant marketplace in the UK… While retailers were aware of the large commissions Amazon charges, they were unaware of the additional risk of that your commercial data will be used. by Amazon to take away their sales.”
This class action is linked to a 2022 investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) investigating possible abuse of market power by Amaon to benefit its retail business against third-party sellers.
Amazon reached a settlement with the CMA and agreed to renew tracking and transparency measures.
To supplement its class action lawsuit, BIRA presents 1,150 pages of evidence.
Boris Bronfentrinker, representing the retailers, commented: “This is precisely the type of claim for which the new collective action regime was introduced, to allow small and medium-sized businesses to recover damages caused by a large multinational.” .
TechRadar Pro has reached out to Amazon for comment, but we did not receive an immediate response at the time of publication.
