Apple and Amazon sued for colluding to raise iPhone and iPad prices

Apple Inc and Amazon.com Inc were accused in an antitrust lawsuit Wednesday of conspiring to raise iPhone and iPad prices by removing nearly all other resellers of new Apple products from Amazon's website.

The proposed class action lawsuit in federal court in Seattle challenged an agreement that took effect in January 2019, under which Apple gave Amazon discounts of up to 10 percent on its products, in exchange for Amazon allowing only seven of the 600 resellers remained on their platform.

This made Amazon the dominant reseller of new iPhones and iPads on its website, according to the complaint, after previously selling a limited number of Apple products, as well as knock-offs.

Prices rose more than 10 percent as Apple stabilized the prices it charged at retail stores, according to the complaint. Discounts of 20 percent or more that were once common are no longer so, he added.