On September 29th, according to a post by technology media AppleInsider, the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal announced the resumption of a case against Apple and Amazon, with potential claims amounting to 289 million pounds sterling, which is approximately 2.568 billion yuan at the current exchange rate, as noted by IT.
As cited in a blog post from IT, this case can be traced back to an agreement reached between Apple Inc. and Amazon UK in 2018, which mainly involved the sale of Apple products and Beats hardware in Amazon's regional stores.
This UK case was initially brought forth by consumer law scholar Christine Riefa. In January 2025, the court dismissed the original case on grounds related to the qualifications of class action representatives and the arrangement of litigation funds. After an update to the case in December 2025, the plaintiff was changed to Justin Le Patourel.
The plaintiff claimed that the agreement also restricted independent retailers from selling Apple products through Amazon, weakening platform competition and affecting consumer purchase prices. The court determined that such restrictions on distributors could potentially drive up the prices of Apple products on the Amazon platform, and that the related claims had a reasonable and realistic basis for consideration.
Judge Kelyn Bacon also believes that the claims regarding the impact on the selling prices of other retailers are based on a complex and speculative theory of damage, and that there is insufficient evidence to support them.
The legal team of Le Patourel stated that if the remaining claims are supported, the amount of compensation would be at least 289 million pounds sterling, which is approximately 2.568 billion yuan at the current exchange rate; the valuation of the previous version of the case was 602 million US dollars, which is about 4.045 billion yuan at the current exchange rate.
Apple expressed strong opposition to the allegations, stating that the purpose of reaching an agreement with Amazon was to combat counterfeit products on the platform. Amazon welcomed the court's decision, stating that the remaining claims lacked basis.
