On January 8, 2021, Amazon seller Netrush and Swedish outdoor equipment company Fjallraven convinced a Manhattan federal court to dismiss claims that they violated antitrust law by collaborating to drive another seller off the site with false counterfeiting complaints. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati represented Netrush in the matter.
2238 Victory Corp.—also known as WholsCamera—sold wholesale products on Amazon from nearly 70 brands, including Fjallraven USA Retail LLC, which makes the popular Kanken backpack. In a complaint filed in 2019, Victory alleged that Fjallraven agreed to make Netrush LLC its exclusive authorized Amazon seller, in exchange for selling Fjallraven products at a price set by the company and providing “brand control and compliance” services on the site. The complaint also said that Fjallraven and Netrush conspired to block Victory from selling Fjallraven products by using fake IP complaints through Amazon’s Notice Infringement protocols. Victory said it was expelled from Amazon for two months.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed Victory’s claims on January 8. Victory’s only federal claim alleged Fjallraven and Netrush “entered into a horizontal agreement to eliminate Victory as a competitor on Amazon, and thus engaged in conduct that is per se unlawful” under the Sherman Act, but the court disagreed. Written by Judge P. Kevin Castel, the court's opinion notes that the distribution agreement was a “mixed vertical and horizontal relationship"—not an inherently anti-competitive horizontal agreement—and an “intrabrand” restraint on trade. “Intrabrand restraints require a fact-intensive analysis to determine the effects on competition,” the court said. “Here, the complaint is bereft of allegations about the competitive landscape in backpack sales and any broader effect to competition arising from Victory’s suspension as an Amazon seller of Fjallraven backpacks.”
The Wilson Sonsini team that represented Netrush in the matter includes partners Jonathan Jacobson and Wendy Waszmer and former firm associate Sarah Doktori.