District Court, W.D. Washington, 2021

West v. Amazon.com Inc

West v. Amazon.com Inc
District Court, W.D. Washington · Decided June 21, 2021
West v. Amazon.com Inc

Trial Court Opinion

1 The Honorable Ricardo S. Martinez UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 8 WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 9 AT SEATTLE |) ELIZABETH DE COSTER, NEMANJA Case No. 2:21-cv-00693-RSM KRSTIC, JOHN MARIANE, OSAHON OJEAGA, and EMMA ZABALLOS, on behalf STIPULATED MOTION AND ORDER 12 of themselves and all others similarly situated, FOR CONSOLIDATION, FILING OF CONSOLIDATED AMENDED 13 Plaintiffs, COMPLAINT, AND SCHEDULE FOR ANSWER OR MOTION TO DISMISS 14 v. 15 Note on Motion Calendar: June 18, 2021 AMAZON.COM, INC., a Delaware || corporation, 17 Defendant.

19 KENNETH DAVID WEST and ROBERT Case No. 2:21-cv-00694-RSM TAYLOR, on behalf of themselves and all || others similarly situated, STIPULATED MOTION AND [PROPOSED] ORDER FOR 2] Plaintiffs, CONSOLIDATION, FILING OF CONSOLIDATED AMENDED 22 y COMPLAINT, AND SCHEDULE FOR , ANSWER OR MOTION TO DISMISS AMAZON.COM, INC., a Delaware Note on Motion Calendar: June 18, 2021 || corporation, 25 Defendant.

STIPULATION AND ORDER FOR ] The parties, by and through their counsel, stipulate and agree as follows: 2 1. Currently pending before this Court are two concurrently filed cases alleging || antitrust claims against Amazon.com, Inc., on behalf of a proposed class: (1) De Coster v. || Amazon.com, Inc., Case No. 2:21-cv-693 (W.D. Wash., filed May 26, 2021) (the “De Coster” || Action) and (2) West v. Amazon.com, Inc., Case No. 2:21-cv-694 (W.D. Wash., filed May 26, || 2021) (the “Wes?” Action). Plaintiffs in both the De Coster and the West Actions (“Plaintiffs”) || identified their cases as related to a third proposed class action pending before The Honorable || Richard A. Jones: Frame-Wilson v. Amazon.com, Inc., Case No. 2:20-cv-424-RAJ (W.D. Wash., || filed March 19, 2020) (the “Frame-Wilson” Action).

10 2. Plaintiffs, along with Defendant Amazon.com, Inc. (together, the “parties”), agree |] that consolidation of the De Coster and West Actions is appropriate. Both Actions involve || materially similar allegations that, inter alia, Defendant required third-party sellers on || “Amazon’s platform,” as Plaintiffs define that term, to agree to restrain competition with “online || retail platforms” that compete with Amazon, as a result of which prices on all “platforms” were || supracompetitive and Plaintiffs were overcharged for purchases on “Amazon’s platform.”

16 || Amazon denies the material allegations in the De Coster and West Actions and contests the || characterizations in the complaints in those Actions, but acknowledges the overlapping || allegations make consolidation appropriate.

19 3. The First Amended Complaint in the Frame-Wilson Action also alleges antitrust || claims, that Amazon likewise denies, on behalf of a proposed class of consumers who made || purchases on “online retail platforms” that compete with Amazon. Because that action is subject || to a pending motion to dismiss, the parties agree that consideration of possible consolidation of || the De Coster and West Actions with Frame-Wilson would be premature at this stage. Benson v. || Fischer, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12351, at *7 (D. Minn. Jan. 25, 2019).

25 4. Plaintiffs in the De Coster and West Actions have notified the Court of a further || related case pending outside the federal court system: District of Columbia v. Amazon.com, Inc., |} No. 2021 CA 001775 B (Superior Court of the District of Columbia, Civil Division, filed May |} 25, 2020) (“District of Columbia” Action). See West, ECF No. 8; De Coster, ECF No. 3; see also STIPULATION ORDER aera || Frame-Wilson, ECF No. 30. Although the factual allegations in the District of Columbia Action || overlap with the allegations in De Coster, West, and Frame-Wilson, the District of Columbia || Action is not pending in a federal trial court and is therefore not subject to transfer to this District || and consolidation.

5 5. Based on the foregoing, the parties hereby stipulate and agree as follows: 6 a. Plaintiffs shall file a consolidated amended class action complaint within 7 30 days of entry of this order; 8 b. Amazon shall file an answer or otherwise respond within 60 days after 9 Plaintiffs file their consolidated amended class action complaint; 10 c. If Amazon moves to dismiss and Plaintiffs do not amend a second time, 11 Plaintiffs’ opposition to any motion to dismiss shall be due 60 days after 12 the deadline for Amazon’s motion to dismiss; and 13 d. Amazon shall have 45 days to file its reply brief.

14 e. Alternatively, if Plaintiffs obtain leave to amend further in response to 15 Amazon’s motion to dismiss, the parties shall meet and confer and submit 16 a proposed schedule for any answer or response to Plaintiffs’ second 17 amended consolidated class action complaint.

18 f. The parties further agree that their Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(f) discovery 19 conference shall occur within thirty days after the earlier of: (a) the filing 20 of Amazon’s answer to the consolidated amended complaint in these 21 actions or (b) the Court’s disposition of any motion to dismiss filed by 22 Amazon in response to the consolidated amended complaint (or to a 23 second amended complaint) in these actions, provided, however, that if the 24 court in the District of Columbia Action permits discovery to go forward 25 in that action before the Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(f) discovery conference in 26 these actions, or the Court in the Frame-Wilson action permits discovery 27 to go forward in that action before the Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(f) discovery 28 conference in these actions, the parties will meet and confer to consider STIPULATION ANDORDERFOR = aera ] whether and to what extent Plaintiffs may concurrently pursue discovery 2 here.

3 || DATED this 18th day of June, 2021 HAGENS BERMAN SOBOL SHAPIRO LLP 4 By:___/s/Steve W. Berman 5 Steve W. Berman, WSBA #12536 By:__/s/ Barbara A. Mahoney 6 Barbara A. Mahoney, WSBA #31845 1301 Second Avenue, Suite 2000 7 Seattle, WA 98101 Telephone: (206) 623-7292 8 Facsimile: (206) 623-0594 9 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] KELLER ROHRBACK L.L.P. 1] By:___/s/ Derek W. Loeser 12 Derek W. Loeser, WSBA No. 24274 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 3200 13 Seattle, WA 98101-3052 Telephone: (206) 623-1900 14 Facsimile: (206) 623-3384 E-mail: [email protected] Zina Bash (pro hac vice pending) 16 KELLER LENKNER LLC Congress Avenue, Suite 150 M7 Austin, TX, 78701 18 Telephone: (512) 620-8375 E-mail: [email protected] Warren D. Postman (pro hac vice) 20 Albert Y. Pak (pro hac vice) KELLER LENKNER LLC 71 1300 I Street N.W., Suite 400E Washington DC, 20005 Telephone: (202) 749-8334 23 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail:[email protected] Attorneys for Plaintiffs Kenneth David West and 25 Robert Taylor STIPULATION ANDORDERFOR aera 1 QUINN EMANUEL URQUHART & 5 SULLIVAN, LLP 3 By:_/s/ Alicia Cobb Alicia Cobb, WSBA # 48685 4 1109 First Avenue, Suite 210 Seattle, WA 98101 5 Telephone: (206) 905-7000 ‘ Email: [email protected] 7 Steig D. Olson (pro hac vice) David D. LeRay (pro hac vice) 8 Nic V. Siebert (pro hac vice) Madison Avenue, 22nd Floor 9 New York, NY 10010 Telephone: (212) 849-7000 10 Email: [email protected] 1] Adam B. Wolfson (pro hac vice) 12 865 South Figueroa Street, 10th Floor Los Angeles, CA 90017-2543 13 Telephone: (213) 443-3000 14 Email: [email protected] 15 Attorneys for Plaintiffs Elizabeth De Coster, Nemanja Krstic, John Mariane, Osahon Ojeaga, 16 and Emma Zaballos 17 DAVIS WRIGHT TREMAINE LLP 18 By:___/s/ Stephen M. Rummage 19 Stephen M. Rummage, WSBA #11168 By:___/s/ MaryAnn Almeida 20 MaryAnn Almeida, WSBA #49086 Fifth Avenue, Suite 3300 2] Seattle, WA 98104-1610 Ph: (206) 622-3150; Fax: (206) 757-7700 E-mail: [email protected] 23 E-mail: [email protected] 24 Attorneys for Defendant Amazon.com, Inc. STIPULATION AND ORDER FOR aera 1 ORDER 2 Pursuant to stipulation, IT IS SO ORDERED.

4 DATED this 21* day of June, 2021. ws 8 RICARDO S. MARTINEZ CHIEF UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE 1] STIPULATION ANDORDERFOR aera

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