Court of Appeal refuses permission to appeal against certification of Amazon class action

Daniel Carall-Green, instructed by Geradin Partners, acted as sole counsel for Prof Stephan in successfully resisting Amazon’s application for permission to appeal against the Competition Appeal Tribunal’s decision to certify Prof Stephan’s case. Hannah Bernstein and Christopher Monaghan are also acting for Prof Stephan in the proceedings, led by Kieron Beal KC of Blackstone Chambers.

Prof Stephan’s case is brought on behalf of UK-domiciled sellers who use Amazon’s platform to sell their products. Prof Stephan alleges that Amazon has abused its dominance in five distinct ways:

1.      Amazon unlawfully uses sellers’ data to confer unfair advantages on itself.

2.      When selecting products for the so-called “Buy Box”, Amazon unfairly favours products offered by its own retail arm.

3.      When selecting products for the “Buy Box”, Amazon also unfairly favours products sold using Amazon’s own logistics services.

4.      Amazon makes sellers’ access to the valuable “Prime” badge conditional on their use of Amazon’s logistics services.

5.      Amazon prevents sellers from offering their products for lower prices off Amazon.

Prof Stephan says that sellers have, as a result of these abuses, made fewer sales, paid higher prices for logistics, and paid higher e-commerce marketplace fees. The value of Prof Stephan’s case is estimated at over £2.6 billion.

As explained here, in January 2025, Prof Stephan was successful in a carriage dispute with BIRA. One of BIRA’s arguments had been that there was a conflict of interest within Prof Stephan’s class, because some class members had allegedly benefitted from the abuses about which Prof Stephan complained. The Tribunal rejected that argument. The Tribunal’s carriage judgment is here.

BIRA applied to the Court of Appeal for permission to appeal on four grounds, including the alleged conflict of interest. The Court of Appeal refused permission. The Court of Appeal’s decision is here.

The result was that Prof Stephan’s case (and not BIRA’s) was allowed to go forward to certification.

As explained here, at the certification hearing, Amazon renewed the argument that there was a conflict of interest within Prof Stephan’s class. The Tribunal rejected the argument again, describing Amazon’s approach as “totally opportunistic”. The Tribunal’s certification judgment is here.