Apple Inc. AAPL and Amazon.com Inc. AMZN are facing a new antitrust class-action lawsuit for allegedly colluding to inflate iPhone and iPad prices in the U.S. market.
What Happened: Hagens Berman, a law firm, filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple and Amazon in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. The case covers U.S. residents who bought new iPhones and iPads on Amazon since 2019.
The lawsuit alleged that an "unlawful horizontal agreement between Apple and Amazon" took place to eliminate or reduce the competitive threat posed by third-party merchants. The attorney said that this violated federal antitrust laws because customers ended up overpaying.
Hagens Berman said on its website that those who bought a new iPhone or iPad from Amazon "between 2019 and the present” likely “overpaid due to a pricing scheme between Apple and Amazon designed to artificially inflate costs.”
Apple and Amazon did not immediately respond to Benzinga's request for comments.
The proposed class action objected to a January 2019 agreement under which Apple gave Amazon discounts of up to 10% on its products. Amazon, in exchange, allowed only seven of 600 resellers on its platform, reported Reuters.
According to the complaint, the agreement made Amazon the dominant reseller of new iPhones and iPads on its platform.
In the third quarter of 2022, Apple and Amazon together topped $125 billion in product revenue, said Reuters.
Read Next: 'What Happens On Your iPhone, Stays On Your iPhone?' New Research Suggests Otherwise
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