The Case
Therium is funding a class action brought before the Federal Court of Canada for damages arising from Amazon’s anti-competitive agreements with third-party sellers on the Amazon platform, which restricted those sellers from selling products on other e-commerce sites for prices lower than the prices charged on Amazon. This is alleged to have had the effect of raising prices on other e-commerce platforms and maintaining artificially high prices on the Amazon platform.
Though this claim is being brought on a standalone basis in Canada, it takes place in the context of ongoing investigations by the European Commission and other regulators into Amazon’s conduct more generally and Amazon’s practices having already been found to be anti-competitive by the German Federal Cartel Office. The funding arrangements have been approved by the Canadian Federal Court.