Yazılar

Apple and Amazon Defeat $600 Million UK Lawsuit Over Alleged Collusion

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Apple and Amazon have successfully defended themselves against a mass lawsuit in the UK, which accused the tech giants of colluding to remove resellers of new Apple products from Amazon’s platform. The Competition Appeal Tribunal ruled on Tuesday that the lawsuit could not proceed.

The case was brought by consumer law academic Christine Riefa on behalf of around 36 million British consumers who had purchased Apple or Beats products. Riefa’s lawyers claimed that in 2018, Apple and Amazon conspired to block the majority of resellers of Apple and Beats-branded products from Amazon’s UK marketplace, allegedly reducing competition for these products.

Apple and Amazon argued that the lawsuit, valued at £494 million ($602 million) plus interest, was baseless and urged the tribunal to dismiss it. The tribunal agreed with the tech giants, ruling that Riefa had not demonstrated sufficient independence or robustness to represent the affected consumers. This decision was based on concerns about third-party funding for the litigation.

The refusal to certify the case was notable because the standard for certification is typically low, making it an unusual ruling in such legal matters. Neither Riefa’s legal team nor spokespeople from Apple and Amazon immediately commented on the outcome.

 

Amazon Partners with Intuit to Bring QuickBooks to Third-Party Sellers

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Amazon is expanding its services for third-party sellers by partnering with Intuit to introduce its QuickBooks software, providing accounting tools to help sellers manage their finances. The collaboration, announced on Monday, will offer the software on Amazon Seller Central, the platform used by millions of sellers to manage their businesses on Amazon. This new integration is expected to launch in mid-2025.

With this move, Amazon aims to assist smaller sellers—especially mom-and-pop shops—with managing their finances more effectively. Sellers will have access to real-time insights into their financial health, including profitability, cash flow, and tax estimates. Additionally, sellers will have the opportunity to access loans through QuickBooks Capital to further support business growth.

Dharmesh Mehta, Amazon’s vice president of worldwide selling partner services, emphasized the importance of this collaboration, saying, “Together with Intuit, we’re working to equip our selling partners with additional financial tools and access to capital to help them scale efficiently.”

Although the integration won’t go live until next year, the announcement comes just as sellers are gearing up for the busy holiday shopping season. The partnership highlights Amazon’s continued focus on its marketplace, which accounts for about 60% of the products sold on its platform. The company generates substantial revenue from third-party sellers, both through fees for fulfillment, shipping services, customer support, and advertising.

Amazon’s seller services revenue grew by 10% in Q3, reaching $37.9 billion and contributing 24% of its total revenue. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy noted that third-party demand and unit volumes remain strong, reflecting the importance of the marketplace to Amazon’s overall business strategy.

Intuit, which is best known for its QuickBooks accounting software, has been expanding its offerings with AI-driven tools to help small businesses streamline their operations. QuickBooks has been a major growth driver for the company, and Intuit has recently added generative AI features to its suite of tools, including QuickBooks and Mailchimp, to provide more automated insights for small business owners. Intuit CEO Sasan Goodarzi noted that the goal is to create a seamless, “done-for-you” experience across its platforms to help sellers increase revenue and profitability while saving time.

 

Amazon Unveils “Buy with AWS” Button for Cloud Software Vendors

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Amazon is expanding its cloud business by introducing a new feature called the “Buy with AWS” button, aimed at streamlining the purchasing process for cloud software vendors and their customers. This feature, announced at Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) Reinvent conference in Las Vegas, allows software vendors to embed a payment option on their websites that enables customers with AWS accounts to buy services directly, taking advantage of pre-agreed discounts.

AWS, the leading cloud provider, brings in over $100 billion in annual revenue, and many software vendors, including Databricks, Wiz, and Workday, host their products on AWS. Now, these vendors can simplify the transaction process, providing a more seamless buying experience for users who are already part of the AWS ecosystem.

Matt Yanchyshyn, AWS’ vice president of marketplace and partner services, emphasized that the new button is designed to increase both customer and partner loyalty, ultimately improving sales conversion rates. The integration is simple for software companies, with the only requirement being that they sell through the AWS Marketplace, where Amazon has recently reduced fees to 3% or lower in some cases.

On the consumer side, the introduction of the “Buy with AWS” button mirrors Amazon’s successful “Buy with Prime” program, which allows retailers to integrate Amazon’s fulfillment network into their own websites. However, the AWS button offers a key difference—there are no fees for software vendors to embed it on their sites. This arrangement results in more revenue for Amazon, as the purchases are tied to services running on AWS.

“Buy with Prime is a separate initiative, but we work closely with that team,” said Yanchyshyn, highlighting the distinction between the two programs. “Buy with AWS is focused on a different use case.”

For cloud software vendors like Databricks, the new feature promises to simplify the purchasing process and increase AWS usage. David Meyer, senior vice president of product management at Databricks, noted that “Buy with AWS” will likely lead to a higher share of revenue from AWS deployments, as it simplifies the buying process.

Workday, which provides finance and human resources software, plans to implement the button for its Adaptive Planning product, acquired in 2018. The company hopes that the button will expedite procurement and make it easier for customers to adopt their software through the AWS Marketplace.

“If this works well, we may expand its use to more products,” said Matthew Brandt, Workday’s senior vice president of global partners. He also mentioned that buyers who are familiar with AWS may be more inclined to choose Workday as a provider.

Industry analysts, such as Ed Anderson from Gartner, believe that the “Buy with AWS” button could prompt other cloud providers to introduce similar features for third-party websites, a move that could further simplify cloud software transactions and increase cloud providers’ market share.