A class action lawsuit claims an Apple-Amazon deal cut nearly all Apple resellers and raised iPad prices.

Jolene Furdek and Jonathan Ryan filed a class action lawsuit on Oct. 9, 2026, against Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle.

The lawsuit alleges Amazon and Apple agreed to block nearly all outside sellers of Apple products from Amazon's marketplace, which raised iPad prices for shoppers.

The alleged agreement

The complaint alleges the two companies signed the global tenets agreement on Oct. 31, 2018, giving Apple the power to cap how many resellers could sell its new products on the marketplace in each country.

Before the deal took effect Jan. 1, 2019, at least 600 outside sellers reportedly listed Apple products on the platform with some allegedly offering discounts of more than 20% off the prices on the iPad maker's own online store. The lawsuit contends the agreement eliminated 593 of them or more than 98%.

Amazon told Congress that as of August 2019, Apple authorized only seven resellers of new Apple products. In return for removing the other sellers, Amazon received a steady supply of Apple products at discounted wholesale prices and went from a minor iPad seller on its own marketplace to the dominant one, the filing alleges.

Both companies have publicly said the deal targeted counterfeit products, the complaint claims. However, the plaintiffs contend the cap limited only the number of sellers and made no effort to screen out known counterfeiters.

How the lawsuit measures the price impact

To measure the deal's effect, the complaint compares iPad prices on Amazon with Samsung Galaxy tablet prices.

Before the alleged deal, Samsung tablets cost an average of $274 less than iPads. Afterward, they cost an average of $563 less, the filing claims.

The plaintiffs say part of that gap reflects differences in the tablets themselves, such as screen size and storage. After accounting for those differences, they estimate the alleged deal added about $40 to $109 to each iPad's price.

Both plaintiffs claim they bought new iPads from Amazon through the buy box, the main purchase panel on each product page. They allege they paid higher prices than they would have paid without the alleged agreement.

The legal claim

The proposed class action brings one claim under Section 1 of the Sherman Act, a federal antitrust law barring agreements that unreasonably restrain trade. It seeks three times the alleged overcharges class members paid, a court order ending the reported agreement and attorneys' fees.

What the lawsuit means for iPad buyers on Amazon

The proposed class covers people and entities residing in the United States who bought any new iPad from the buy box on Amazon.com between May 7, 2020, and the date of class notice. As of this writing, there is no settlement, no claims process and no money available.