After frequent Apple foe Hagens Berman pressed forward without the main complainant in a lawsuit alleging Apple and Amazon conspired to inflate hardware prices, the judge overseeing the trial has dismissed the case.
The class action suit was originally filed in November 2022 by Hagens Berman Law, the same firm that handled the 2014 ebook price-fixing suit, and others. The claim was that Apple and Amazon's 2018 deal to let the retailer stock iPhones and iPads, saw third-party resellers being dropped.
Now according to Reuters, the case has been dismissed by Seattle federal court judge Kymberly Evanson. The plaintiffs have been allowed to resubmit an amended suit, but the case was dismissed for now in part because of the actions of the lawyers.
Specifically, Judge Evanson's ruling refers to the "unfortunate detour of motions precipitated by Plaintiffs' counsel's now well-documented misrepresentations of the status of former class representative Steven Floyd."
"At all times, the Court gave Plaintiffs' counsel the benefit of the doubt, assuming their assurances of Floyd's desire to remain in the case were candid and accurate," she continued.
However, it transpires that this original plaintiff withdrew from the lawsuit. Lawyers from Hagens Berman Law reportedly told the court that Floyd had "become difficult to reach," but did not say he'd withdrawn.
Based on the presumption that Floyd was still a plaintiff, the court allowed for what it believed was the addition of further plaintiffs. In other words, the lawyers allegedly kept the case going while looking for alternative plaintiffs.
While the lawyers have not commented since the ruling, they previously said that the case was conducted with "the highest degree of professionalism by all involved." But did then admit to the court that the situation could have been handled better.
A similar $600 million suit in the UK was dismissed in January 2025. Before that, Apple and Amazon had requested that the US case be dismissed, but the two companies were denied.
