In re Amazon Prime Video Litigation

Opinion

1 THE HONORABLE BARBARA J. ROTHSTEIN 2 3 4 5 6 7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 8 AT SEATTLE 9 WILBERT NAPOLEON, individually and on Case No.: 2:24-CV-00186-BJR behalf of all others similarly situated, 10 JOINT MOTION TO CONSOLIDATE Plaintiff, AND ORDER 11 v. 12 AMAZON.COM, INC., 13 Defendant. 14

15 16 JOINT REQUEST TO CONSOLIDATE THE RELATED ACTIONS 17 Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 42(a), all parties in this action and the actions 18 entitled Gianne v. Amazon.com, Inc., No. 2:24-cv-309-BJR and Peterson v. Amazon.com, Inc., No. 19 2:24-cv-364-BJR (together the “Related Actions”) have conferred through counsel and jointly and 20 respectfully request that the Court consolidate the Related Actions into a single consolidated 21 action. 22 Under Rule 42(a), “[i]f actions before the court involve a common question of law or fact, 23 the court may … consolidate the actions.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 42(a). Once a court identifies a common 24 question of law or fact, it generally weighs “the savings of time and effort consolidation will 25 produce against any inconvenience, delay, confusion, or prejudice that may result.” Rittmann v. 26 Amazon.com, Inc., No. C16-1554-JCC, 2019 WL 2994634, at *1 (W.D. Wash. July 9, 2019). 27 Here, the Parties agree that the Related Actions should be consolidated because they 1 Related Actions each allege that Amazon breached the contract with its annual Amazon Prime 2 subscribers when it allegedly raised the price by an additional $2.99 per month for Prime Video 3 — one of the benefits of Amazon Prime — during the contract period. Plaintiffs in the Related 4 Actions assert overlapping legal claims, asserting that Amazon’s conduct with respect to Prime 5 Video constitutes a breach of contract and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair 6 dealing, and violates the Washington Consumer Protection Act and other state consumer protection 7 statutes. There is also substantial overlap across the proposed classes in the Related Actions, which 8 all include customers who purchased annual Amazon Prime subscriptions. Given the common 9 defendant and significant overlap in factual and legal issues, the interests of judicial economy 10 support consolidation of the Related Actions. 11 PROPOSED NEXT STEPS 12 The Parties respectfully request that the Court (i) consolidate the Related Actions and any 13 pending or future related actions in this District relating to an alleged price increase for Prime 14 Video and/or the inclusion of advertising content with Prime Video, (ii) order Plaintiffs in the 15 Related Actions to file a consolidated amended complaint, (iii) designate this action, the first-filed 16 of the three Related Actions, as the main docket for the consolidated action, and (iv) vacate any 17 prior scheduling orders and initial deadlines in each of the Related Actions. The Parties also 18 respectfully request that Court enter the following case schedule in the consolidated action: 19 Event Deadline 20 Deadline for Plaintiffs’ counsel in the Related 14 days after the Court’s order on 21 Actions to file cross-motions seeking appointment as consolidation interim class counsel, pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 22 23(g)(3) 23 Deadline to file a Consolidated Amended Complaint 30 days after the order appointing 24 (“CAC”) lead interim class counsel 25 Deadline for Amazon to respond to the CAC 30 days after the CAC is filed 26

27 1 Dated: April 26, 2024 Respectfully submitted,

2 FENWICK & WEST LLP 3 By /s/ Brian D. Buckley 4 Brian D. Buckley, WSBA No. 26423 5 401 Union Street, 5th Floor Seattle, WA 98101 6 Telephone: 206.389.4510 Facsimile: 206.389.4511 7 Email: bbuckley@fenwick.com

8 Attorneys for Defendant 9 AMAZON.COM, INC.

10 DOVEL & LUNER, LLP 11 12 By /s/ Jonas B. Jacobson 13 Jonas B. Jacobson (pro hac vice) Christin Cho (pro hac vice) 14 Simon Franzini (pro hac vice) 201 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 600 15 Santa Monica, CA 90401 Telephone: (310) 656-7066 16 Facsimile: (310) 656-7069 17 Email: jonas@dovel.com Email: christin@dovel.com 18 Email: simon@dovel.com

19 CARSON & NOEL PLLC Wright A. Noel, WSBA No. 25264 20 20 Sixth Avenue NE 21 Issaquah WA 98027 Telephone: 425.395.7786 22 Facsimile: 42.837.5396 Email: wright@carsonnoel.com 23 Attorneys for Plaintiff 24 WILBERT NAPOLEON 25

26 27 1 TOUSLEY BRAIN STEPHENS PLLC 2 By /s/ Kim D. Stephens, P.S. 3 Kim D. Stephens, P.S., WSBA No. 11984 Rebecca L. Solomon, WSBA No. 51520 4 1200 Fifth Avenue, Suite 1700 5 Seattle, WA 98101 Telephone: 206.682.5600 6 Facsimile: 206.682.2992 kstephens@tousley.com 7 rsolomon@tousley.com

8 Attorneys for Plaintiffs 9 NATALIE GIANNE & Proposed Class

10 SIRI & GLIMSTAD LLP 11 12 By /s/ David J. DiSabato 13 David J. DiSabato (pro hac vice to be filed) Lisa R. Considine (pro hac vice to be filed) 14 Oren Faircloth (pro hac vice to be filed) 745 Fifth Avenue, Suite 500 15 New York, NY 10151 Telephone: 212.532.1091 16 Facsimile: 646.417.5967 17 Email: ddisabato@sirillp.com Email: lconsidine@sirillp.com 18 Email: ofaircloth@sirillp.com

19 Attorneys for Plaintiffs TIMOTHY PETERSON & Proposed Class 20

21 22 IT IS SO ORDERED. 23 DATED this 13th day of May, 2024. 24 A 25 26 B arbara Jacobs Rothstein U.S. District Court Judge

27 1 Presented by: FENWICK & WEST LLP 2 3 By: /s/ Brian D. Buckley Brian D. Buckley, WSBA No. 26423 4

5 401 Union Street, 5th Floor Seattle, WA 98101 6 Telephone: 206.389.4510 Facsimile: 206.389.4511 7 Email: bbuckley@fenwick.com

8 Attorneys for Amazon.com, Inc. 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27