Amazon loses bid to dismiss consumers’ price-fixing lawsuit in US court

Amazon.com must face a prospective consumer class action in Seattle federal court accusing the online retail giant of a price-fixing scheme that has artificially inflated prices for numerous goods on its platform, a judge ruled on Thursday.

US District Judge John Chun in a 24-page order said the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, five residents of California and Maryland who said they regularly shop using Amazon’s website, could advance their claims challenging Amazon’s pricing policies.

The consumer plaintiffs, Chun wrote, “allege the type of conduct that antitrust law is intended to prevent.”