By Jonathan Stempel
Jan 5 (Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Monday rejected Amazon.com’s bid to dismiss a proposed class-action lawsuit accusing the online retailer of price gouging during the COVID-19 pandemic.
U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik in Seattle, Amazon’s hometown, found “unpersuasive” a claim that Washington state consumer protection laws were vague as applied to pricing, and did not cover the alleged price gouging.
Lasnik said it was plausible to infer that product shortages, public health directives and the shift to online purchasing left consumers “no meaningful choice but to purchase from Amazon despite the allegedly unfair prices it was charging.”
Consumers accused Amazon of failing to prevent sellers from using its platform to charge “flagrantly unlawful” prices for food and other staples.
They also said Amazon inflated prices on its own product inventory to “profiteer off consumers in desperate need.”
Prices rose 233% on Aleve pain relief tablets, 1,044% on Quilted Northern toilet paper, 1,523% on Arm & Hammer baking soda and 1,800% on some face masks, according to the complaint.
Amazon and its lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Steve Berman, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, called the decision “an important win for consumers.” He also said internal Amazon documents demonstrated that the retailer knew what price gouging was and assured state attorneys general it was trying to prevent it.
The lawsuit seeks damages for people who paid “unfair” prices for food and other consumer goods on Amazon between January 31, 2020 and October 20, 2022, around when Washington and other states ended COVID-related states of emergency.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York, Editing by Franklin Paul and Lisa Shumaker)
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