Amazon accused of deceptive ‘sales’ of its own products in lawsuit

Amazon is facing a class action lawsuit accusing the company of misleading pricing practices. The lawsuit alleges that Amazon deceived shoppers by showing inflated list prices for Fire TVs, making the discounts seem more significant than they actually were.

The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington and claims that the company engaged in this practice on a regular basis, calling it a “persistent and consistent scheme.” The lawsuit alleges that Amazon created “false list prices” for its Fire TVs, making the apparent “discounts” deceptive.

It accuses the company of deceiving its customers into purchasing Fire TVs by omitting “critical information” related to the duration of the sale and when the list price would actually be in use. This allegedly caused Amazon customers to spend “more money than they would have otherwise done for the purported time-limited deal.” The lawsuit claims that “many Fire TVs have been priced nowhere near the advertised list price for a year or more.”

The lawsuit alleges violations of Washington’s Consumer Protection Act, which “prohibits unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in the conduct of any trade or commerce.” Plaintiff David Ramirez seeks compensatory and punitive damages, as well as an injunction to prevent Amazon from continuing the alleged practices. The lawsuit seeks compensatory damages “in an amount to be determined by the court and/or jury” and pre-judgment interest on everything awarded.

The lawsuit references a similar case that took place in California in 2021 in which Amazon was barred from using false or deceptive list prices in its advertising. The company also agreed to pay a penalty and restitution of nearly $2 million as part of that settlement. As for this case, it’s still early days. An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment when contacted by Seattle-based news organization KIRO 7.

We’ve reached out to the company for comment and will report back when we get a response. Super Bowl LIX is just a few weeks away, which means it’s a great time to be in the market for a new TV. If you’re looking to upgrade your living room, we’ve found some Super Bowl 2025 TV deals from Amazon, Best Buy and other retailers that are really worth your time.

To be honest, most of the discounts below are the result of TV prices naturally dropping this time of year, not any Super Bowl-specific sales. Most sets come out in the spring, drop a little in the summer, get a big price cut during the holiday season, then gradually get cheaper until they’re discontinued next year.

That pattern is now starting to take shape again, and with companies like Samsung and LG introducing their latest TVs for 2025 during CES last month, last year’s models will probably go even lower in the coming months.

Still, if you’re looking to upgrade today, some of the best-reviewed TVs from LG, Sony, Samsung, and Hisense are back to prices they were around on Black Friday — and in some cases, even cheaper. Although we don’t formally review TVs at Engadget, we’ve scoured reviews from other sites we trust to find good stuff and picked through price history to make sure the discounts below are real deals.

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