UK businesses that sold on Amazon.co.uk with a Professional seller account at any point between June 26, 2018 and June 26, 2024 are already part of a £2.7 billion GBP competition claim against Amazon, whether or not they have heard of it. The claim is opt-out, the opt-out window has closed, and in February 2026 the Court of Appeal refused Amazon permission to appeal the certification. Nothing is payable yet. The case is heading toward trial, and the allegations remain unproven.
Status: Collective action certified November 27, 2025; Amazon refused permission to appeal February 26, 2026 | No settlement — nothing to claim yet
What Sellers Need to Know Right Now
- You do not have to sign up. Qualifying sellers are included automatically. Registering on the official claim website only adds you to the email update list.
- Leaving the class is no longer simple. The opt-out deadline was 4 p.m. on February 27, 2026. A seller that wants out now has to ask the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal, which decides.
- It costs nothing. A litigation funder pays for the case and has arranged cover for Amazon’s costs if the claim loses.
- Keep proof of where you were based. Membership depends on being UK-domiciled on November 27, 2025. The claim notice tells sellers who have since left the UK to keep records showing their location on that date.
Who Is Covered
The case is Professor Andreas Stephan v. Amazon.com, Inc. and others, Case No. 1644/7/7/24, in the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal. A seller is in the class if all of the following are true:
- it sold, or was admitted to sell, on Amazon’s UK marketplace, either on amazon.co.uk or through the Amazon app set to shop in the United Kingdom;
- it did so as a business, trade or profession, using a Professional selling account or an equivalent;
- it was selling at some point from June 26, 2018 to June 26, 2024; and
- it was domiciled in the UK on November 27, 2025, the date of the order.
Excluded are Amazon and its staff; the lawyers, experts, funders and insurers working on the case; and companies that have been dissolved or struck off. Sales before June 26, 2018 are outside the claim because UK limitation rules do not reach back that far. Losses from claims that arose inside the period are covered even if they were felt later. The Tribunal cited an uncontested estimate of about 211,000 sellers in the class, most of them small businesses. Sellers based outside the UK are not included.
How the Case Got Here
| June 2024 | Claim filed with the Tribunal. |
| July 24, 2025 | Tribunal rules the claim can go ahead on an opt-out basis. |
| November 27, 2025 | Collective Proceedings Order made. |
| February 26, 2026 | Court of Appeal refuses Amazon permission to appeal. |
| February 27, 2026 | Opt-out deadline (4 p.m.). |
Andreas Stephan, the class representative, is a competition law professor who heads the law school at the University of East Anglia. He does not sell on Amazon; UK rules allow a suitable individual to bring a claim for a whole class. Amazon argued on appeal that the class mixed sellers whose interests conflict. The Court of Appeal found the argument had no real prospect of success.
What Amazon Is Accused Of
The claim alleges Amazon is dominant in providing marketplace services to sellers trying to reach UK customers and abused that position, breaching section 18 of the Competition Act 1998 and, before December 31, 2020, Article 102 of the EU treaty. It names five practices:
- using sellers’ non-public sales data to help Amazon’s own retail business;
- favouring Amazon’s own retail offers when picking the Buy Box winner;
- favouring offers fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) over seller-shipped offers in the Buy Box;
- making the Prime badge depend on using Amazon’s fulfilment service; and
- penalising sellers who offer lower prices on other websites.
The alleged harm comes in three forms: lost sales, fulfilment fees that were too high, and marketplace fees above what a competitive market would have set.
Regulators have looked at much of this. The UK Competition and Markets Authority accepted binding commitments from Amazon in November 2023 on seller data, the Buy Box and Prime eligibility, and the European Commission accepted similar commitments for other European markets in December 2022. Neither found that Amazon broke the law, and the Tribunal noted there is no finding that Amazon held or abused a dominant position. Italy’s competition authority fined Amazon €1.13 billion EUR in 2021 over the link between Prime and fulfilment, and Amazon appealed that decision.
Amazon opposed certification. It attacked the experts’ methods and the funding arrangement, and argued that sellers are a varied group that has benefited from its store and should have to opt in. The Tribunal rejected those points, but certification decides only whether the case can proceed, not whether Amazon did anything wrong.
The Numbers Are Estimates
The class representative’s economist puts total damages at about £2.7 billion GBP, an average of roughly £13,000 per seller over 2018 to 2024 before interest. Those figures come from one side of the case. Money would reach sellers only after a trial win or a Tribunal-approved settlement, and sellers would be told how to claim at that point.
Innsworth Capital has committed up to £32.9 million GBP to run the case. If the claim succeeds, it expects repayment plus a return from the recovery, but the Tribunal must approve that return at the end. Earlier, the Tribunal called the funder’s potential return “remarkably high” and said it would look at it again when the case concludes.
A Matching Claim for Shoppers
The Tribunal certified a separate consumer case at the same time, Hammond v. Amazon.com, Inc. and others, Case No. 1595/7/7/23, over the Buy Box and Prime practices, and the Court of Appeal refused Amazon permission to appeal that order too. The two cases are to be heard together, with the sellers’ expert evidence on fulfilment and marketplace fees used in both, because the shoppers’ claim turns on how much of any overcharge sellers passed on in prices.
Next Steps in the Case
The claim now moves to disclosure and expert evidence, and then to trial unless it settles. No trial date appears in the published orders. The Tribunal said it expects Amazon to disclose any internal assessments of the commitments it gave regulators, and expects the monitoring reports filed under those commitments to be disclosable as well.
Sellers can sign up for updates on the official Amazon 3P Seller Claim website and read the Tribunal-approved claim notice. U.S. sellers and shoppers have no rights in this UK case; U.S. marketplace litigation is covered separately in OpenClassActions.com’s Amazon marketplace antitrust explainer. OpenClassActions.com’s full report is its Amazon UK seller class action update.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do Amazon.co.uk sellers need to sign up for the UK claim?
No. The claim is opt-out, so UK-domiciled sellers who fit the class definition are included automatically. Registering on the official claim website only signs a seller up for updates. The opt-out deadline passed on February 27, 2026.
Can a seller based outside the UK join?
No. Only sellers domiciled in the UK on November 27, 2025 are in the class. A seller that was UK-domiciled on that date and has since moved abroad stays in, and should keep records showing where it was based on that date.
How much could a seller receive?
Nothing is available now. The class representative’s economist estimates about 2.7 billion GBP in total damages and an average of about 13,000 GBP per seller before interest, but those are one side’s estimates. Money would follow only a trial win or a Tribunal-approved settlement.
Do sellers pay anything toward the case?
No. Innsworth Capital funds the claim and has arranged cover for Amazon’s legal costs if the claim fails, so class members pay nothing either way.
Is this connected to U.S. Amazon lawsuits?
Not legally. This is a UK competition law claim covering UK-based sellers only. U.S. sellers and shoppers have no rights in it, and UK class membership gives no rights in any U.S. case.
Sources
- UK Competition Appeal Tribunal — Judgment (CPO), Hammond v. Amazon.com, Inc. and others and Professor Andreas Stephan v. Amazon.com, Inc. and others, Case Nos. 1595/7/7/23 and 1644/7/7/24, [2025] CAT 42 (July 24, 2025).
- UK Competition Appeal Tribunal — Collective Proceedings Order and Tribunal-approved notice, Case No. 1644/7/7/24 (November 27, 2025).
- Court of Appeal (Civil Division) — Stephan and Hammond v. Amazon, [2026] EWCA Civ 183 (February 26, 2026).
- Amazon 3P Seller Claim — official claim website.
- Competition Appeal Tribunal — case register.
- OpenClassActions.com — Amazon UK Seller Class Action: £2.7 Billion GBP Claim Cleared for Trial
Source and credit: this report builds on our sister site’s coverage — OpenClassActions.com: Amazon UK Seller Class Action: £2.7 Billion GBP Claim Cleared for Trial — which follows the case and is updated as new filings, orders and payment news come in.
Legal Disclaimer
This article is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice. OpenClassActions.org is a consumer news site, not a law firm, and is not affiliated with any party to the matters described. Allegations are allegations until a court rules on them, and court schedules and outcomes can change.