BIRA leads £1bn damages claim against Amazon for UK retailers

The British Independent Retailers Association (BIRA) has brought forward a £1bn pound damages claim against Amazon on behalf of retailers selling on Amazon’s UK marketplace accusing it of “illegally misusing their data and manipulating the Amazon Buy Box to benefit its own commercial operation and its overall revenues and profit”. The claim by BIRA, the biggest collective action ever launched by UK retailers, is being brought on behalf of retailers at the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) in London. BIRA asserts that between October 2015 and the present date, Amazon used data belonging to UK retailers on the company’s marketplace – data that is non-public and belongs solely and specifically to the retailers – “in combination with manipulating the Amazon Buy Box, to engage in a product entry strategy that resulted in sales revenue and profits being diverted from these retailers to Amazon”. BIRA said it has filed over 1,150 pages of documents with the CAT that set out the claim against Amazon. This includes a statement from its chief executive Andrew Goodacre explaining why BIRA is bringing the action and how it will manage the claim on behalf of the proposed class of retailers. There is also a report from an independent economic expert that supports the claim and a detailed plan for managing the claim, including how the proposed class of approximately 35,000 UK retailers will be communicated with through a claim website, newspapers, magazines and social media. Andrew Goodacre, CEO of BIRA said: “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.” BIRA has instructed leading international law firm Willkie Farr and Gallagher (UK) LLP on this landmark case. The team is being led by partners Boris Bronfentrinker, Elaine Whiteford and Michelle Clark. Leading competition barristers Sarah Ford KC at Brick Court Chambers and Jason Pobjoy from Blackstone Chambers have also been instructed, whilst BIRA’s independent economic expert is Dr Rainer Nitsche from E.CA Economics. An Amazon spokesperson told City AM: “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.” Retail Sector has also contacted Amazon for comment.