New UK lawsuit takes another shot at Amazon's and Apple's alleged price fixing

Despite both UK and US courts previously dismissing cases about Apple and Amazon allegedly colluding over prices, a new lawsuit has been filed to see if it can do any better.

The accusation in each case is that Amazon and Apple made a secret deal that placed unfair restrictions on independent retailers selling Apple devices on Amazon. Consequently the suit claims that consumers suffered harm as the two firms were able to maintain higher prices than they would.

This case was filed in the US in 2022 and was ultimately dismissed in September 2025. Similarly, Professor Christine Riefa later brought a mass lawsuit — the British equivalent of a class action — to the UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT).

That was dismissed in January 2025. Significantly, though, the new suit points out that while the CAT dismissed the case, it did not say that the underlying claims of consumer harm were wrong.

So right then, sleeves up, Justin Le Patourel has taken a seemingly identical suit. And he has done so with the same Competition Appeal Tribunal.

"The merits of the case have always been strong," said Le Patourel in a statement. "The Tribunal's earlier refusal to certify the previous claim had nothing to do with the core allegations, which remain compelling and unanswered."

In details sent to AppleInsider, a representative of law firm Hausfeld & Co said that Le Patourel was bringing a $1.2 billion case against Apple and Amazon.

The same representative also described Le Patourel as a consumer rights champion, who previously led a high-profile action against British wireless carrier BT. It neglects to mention that Le Patourel lost that case and was ordered — by CAT — to pay $18.7 million in costs.

While the essentially identical US case was dismissed in September 2025, it is actually continuing in a highly unusual way. Apple and Amazon are now demanding a total of $2 million in costs from law firm Hagens Berman.

The companies argue that the law firm incurred further costs by dishonestly attempting to keep a dead class action case alive. Amazon and Apple's filing describes a "lack of candor" by the firm.

Long-time Apple legal foe Hagens Berman later denied misleading the court. However, it did admit that that "the situation could have been handled better."

The fate of the UK suit is unclear. The writing may be on the wall, though, given how the last two went.