In a legal maneuver, Amazon.com has invoked a U.S. law shielding online platforms from third-party content claims, aiming to counter a consumer lawsuit accusing Amazon of profiting from social casino apps.
The company, in a filing last week, urged a federal judge in Seattle to suspend the case while an appeals court deliberates on similar lawsuits targeting Alphabet’s Google, Apple, and Meta’s Facebook.
According to Court Cast, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco is set to delve into casino-app cases come April or May, with a verdict anticipated by year-end, said attorneys from Perkins Coie, representing Amazon. The plaintiffs are seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in alleged damages.
In 2022, a California federal judge allowed consumer claims against Google, Apple, and Facebook for their roles in processing payments related to in-app transactions to move forward. At the heart of the matter is the interpretation of Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act of 1996, a legal provision offering protections to tech companies hosting user-generated content on their platforms.
The lawsuits claim the social casino apps constitute illegal gambling because they sell digital chips to players once they use their initial free-to-play stakes. This, the plaintiffs say, makes them “illegal slots.”
