UK retailers file £1bn damages claim against Amazon

A group of independent UK retailers have today (7th June) filed a £1bn damages claim against Amazon over allegations that the retailer illegally misused their data to increase its own revenues and profit. 

The claim is being brought by the British Independent Retailers Association (BIRA) on behalf of approximately 35,000 UK retailers who sell on Amazon at the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) in London. 

It alleges that between October 2015 and the present date, Amazon used non-public data belonging to the retailers, in combination with manipulating the Amazon Buy Box, to bring rival products to market and to divert shoppers away from independent sellers and towards Amazon’s own items.

BIRA says this is the biggest collective action to have ever been filed by UK retailers, adding that Amazon was already charging businesses a non-negotiable 30% commission on every product sold on the site. It continues that “by misusing their proprietary data to bring to market rival products that are sold cheaper, Amazon is effectively pushing many of the UK’s independent retailers out of the market”. The association will today file over 1,150 pages of documents with the CAT that set out the claim against Amazon.

BIRA’s chief executive Andrew Goodacre said: “One might ask why would an independent retailer use Amazon if it is so damaging to their business? In reality, we have seen a significant shift in consumer buying behaviour and, if small business want to sell online, Amazon is the dominant marketplace in the UK. As a result, for small retailers with limited resources, Amazon is the marketplace to start online trading. Whilst the retailers knew about the large commissions charged by Amazon, they did not know about the added risk of their trading data being used by Amazon to take sales away from them.” 

Goodacre added: “The British public has a strong relationship with its local, independent retailers and ensuring they are not put out of business by Amazon’s illegal actions is a key driving force behind this collective action. The filing of the claim today is the first step towards retailers obtaining compensation for what Amazon has done. 

"I am confident that the CAT will authorise the claim to go forward, and I look forward to the opportunity to present the case on behalf of UK retailers. This is a watershed moment for UK retailers, but especially for small independent retailers in this country.” 

Amazon responded to the claims in a statement published by the Guardian: “We have not seen this complaint, but based on the reporting so far we are confident that it is baseless and that this will be exposed in the legal process. Over 100,000 small and medium-sized businesses in the UK sell on Amazon’s store, more than half of all physical product sales on our UK store are from independent selling partners, and the fact is that we only succeed when the businesses we work with succeed.”