Sezzle Sued Shopify Faces Antitrust Lawsuit Over BNPL Market Are You Affected as a Merchant?

Shopify is facing a federal antitrust lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, where buy now, pay later company Sezzle alleges Shopify used its market power to crush BNPL competition on its platform and hurt millions of merchants. The case is Sezzle, Inc. v. Shopify, Inc., File No. 25-cv-2395. A federal judge ruled on May 12, 2026 that Sezzle had “plausibly alleged” that Shopify wields monopoly power and demonstrated anticompetitive conduct in the BNPL market.

Quick Facts: Shopify Antitrust Lawsuit

Field	Detail
Lawsuit Filed	June 9, 2025
Defendant	Shopify Inc. (Ottawa, Canada)
Alleged Violation	Sherman Antitrust Act §§ 1 & 2, Clayton Act, Minnesota Antitrust Law, Minnesota Deceptive Trade Practices Act
Who Is Affected	Shopify merchants who used or were penalized for using third-party BNPL providers
Current Court Stage	Motion to dismiss denied (core claims); case continues in litigation
Court & Jurisdiction	U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota
Presiding Judge	U.S. District Judge Eric Tostrud
Lead Plaintiff	Sezzle Inc. (NASDAQ: SEZL)
Next Hearing Date	TBD — pending further scheduling after May 2026 ruling
Official Case Website	TBD — no official case site established yet
Last Updated	May 13, 2026

What Is the Shopify Antitrust Lawsuit About? Sezzle, Inc. v. Shopify, Inc., No. 25-cv-2395

Sezzle alleges that Shopify used its market power to make its own buy now, pay later service the default provider on merchant websites, and engineered its checkout process to make it extremely difficult for shoppers to choose a competing BNPL option.

Shopify also imposed fees on millions of merchants through contracts that penalized them for using Sezzle or any other non-Shopify BNPL option. If you ran a Shopify store and offered Sezzle at checkout, Shopify reportedly charged you a 1%–2% surcharge on every transaction processed through Sezzle — a direct financial hit designed to steer you toward Shop Pay Installments instead.

The lawsuit also includes a deeper allegation: Sezzle claims that in 2018, two senior Shopify executives visited the company under the guise of corporate development interest, falsely suggesting Shopify wanted to acquire or partner with Sezzle — when their actual goal was to learn enough about Sezzle’s business model to copy it. Shopify then launched Shop Pay Installments in 2021. This case is part of a broader pattern of antitrust class action lawsuits targeting platform companies accused of self-preferencing — similar to what you can read about in the Ticketmaster antitrust class action lawsuit on AllAboutLawyer.com.

Are You Part of the Shopify BNPL Class Action Lawsuit?

This is not a consumer class action — at least not yet. The core dispute is between Sezzle and Shopify. But if you operated a Shopify store, this lawsuit may directly affect your business and your right to future compensation for damages. Here is how to know whether you are connected to this case.

You may be part of this class if you:

• Operated a merchant store on Shopify’s platform at any time between 2021 and the present
• Offered Sezzle or another third-party BNPL provider at checkout and were charged penalty fees by Shopify for doing so
• Were steered away from offering Sezzle by Shopify’s checkout design or financial penalties
• Lost customers because Shopify made competing BNPL options harder to find or use
• Had access to Sezzle’s inventory-locking tools cut off after Shopify limited that feature to its own product

You are likely NOT included if you:

• Only used Shopify’s native Shop Pay Installments and never attempted to integrate a third-party BNPL tool
• Are a consumer who simply shopped on a Shopify-powered website — this case is currently framed as a business-vs-platform dispute, not a direct consumer class action

The court allowed Sezzle’s core claims to proceed, including monopolization and attempted monopolization under Section 2 of the Sherman Act, unlawful restraint of trade under Section 1 of the Sherman Act, parallel claims under Minnesota Antitrust Law, and a claim under the Minnesota Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

Related article: Mondelez Milka Alpenmilch Shrinkflation False Advertising Lawsuit, Mondelez Found Guilty of Deceiving Milka Buyers The Shrinkflation Case Explained

If you are a merchant interested in understanding your rights, consulting a consumer rights lawyer or a business antitrust attorney now — before this case moves further — is a smart step. For a broader explanation of how these cases work, see our coverage of the Valve antitrust class action lawsuit on AllAboutLawyer.com, which involves nearly identical self-preferencing allegations in a digital platform context.

What Are Sezzle and Affected Merchants Seeking From Shopify?

No settlement exists. No claim form is open. This section explains what the plaintiffs have asked the court for — not what you can collect today.

Sezzle is seeking an injunction to block Shopify from continuing its alleged anticompetitive conduct, and the suit asks for treble damages — meaning damages three times the amount awarded by a jury. Under the Sherman Antitrust Act, successful plaintiffs in an antitrust case can recover triple their actual losses, which makes this a significant potential legal settlement payout if Sezzle prevails.

By 2024, three years after Shopify launched Shop Pay Installments, Shopify’s own BNPL product processed more than 75% of all BNPL transactions on its platform. Sezzle’s lawsuit argues that number was the direct result of anticompetitive conduct — not superior product quality. The court, so far, has found that argument plausible enough to survive dismissal.

Make clear: no money is available to merchants right now, and no claim form exists. If a settlement is eventually reached, merchants who were harmed may be eligible for compensation for damages at that time.

What Shopify Said in Its Defense

Shopify did not go down without a fight. Shopify’s attorneys argued in their September 2025 motion to dismiss that all of Sezzle’s antitrust theories are “implausible and built on nothing but Sezzle’s dissatisfaction with its own lost business,” and that Shopify has no duty to design products in a way that benefits rivals.

Shopify argued that the antitrust laws protect competition, not competitors, and that Sezzle’s complaints about checkout flow, inventory locking, and order IDs amount to frustration that Shopify does not provide Sezzle the assistance it wants on the terms it prefers.

The judge disagreed — at least partially. U.S. District Judge Eric Tostrud found that Sezzle plausibly alleged Shopify acquired monopoly power in the BNPL market on Shopify-based websites willfully, rather than as a result of a superior product, business acumen, or historical accident. However, Tostrud did dismiss one claim: the court dismissed without prejudice Sezzle’s unlawful tying claim under Section 1 of the Sherman Act and the corresponding portion of the state-law antitrust claim.

What Should You Do If You Were Affected as a Shopify Merchant?

Right now, there is no action required to preserve your potential place in this lawsuit. Here is what to do:

1. Save your records. Keep any contracts, invoices, or emails that show you were charged fees by Shopify for using Sezzle or another BNPL provider. Documents showing the penalty fee being applied to your transactions are especially important.
2. Monitor the case docket. The case is active in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. You can track it at PACER (pacer.uscourts.gov) under case number 25-cv-2395.
3. Do not pay anyone to join. If a class is certified and you qualify, membership is automatic. No lawyer fee is required upfront to be included.
4. Consider a free legal consultation if you believe you suffered significant financial harm from Shopify’s BNPL fees. A class action lawsuit attorney can advise whether your situation warrants individual action in addition to any eventual class recovery.

Shopify Antitrust Lawsuit Timeline

Milestone	Date
Sezzle files lawsuit in U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota	June 9, 2025
Shopify signals intent to file motion to dismiss	August 12, 2025
Shopify files formal motion to dismiss	September 18, 2025
Oral arguments heard by Judge Tostrud	December 8, 2025
Judge Tostrud denies core dismissal, allows claims to proceed	May 12, 2026
Class certification motion	TBD — not yet filed
Next scheduled hearing	TBD — pending further court scheduling
Expected settlement timeline	TBD — antitrust cases of this complexity typically take several years

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a class action lawsuit against Shopify?

 Yes. Sezzle filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against Shopify on June 9, 2025, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. The case number is 25-cv-2395. A federal judge allowed the core claims to proceed in May 2026, keeping the lawsuit alive.

Do I need to do anything right now as a Shopify merchant? 

Not yet. No class has been formally certified in this case. Your most important step right now is saving any contracts, invoices, or records that show you paid Shopify penalty fees for using Sezzle or another third-party BNPL tool. Those records could matter significantly later.

When will the Shopify antitrust lawsuit settle?

 There is no way to predict this with certainty. Antitrust cases involving large platform companies routinely take three to five years from filing to resolution. The case is still in early litigation — class certification has not even been filed yet as of May 2026.

Can I file my own lawsuit against Shopify instead of joining this class action? 

Yes. Anyone who suffered individual business damages can pursue a private antitrust claim under the Sherman Act rather than waiting for this class action to resolve. That decision requires a consultation with a consumer rights lawyer familiar with antitrust law before the applicable statute of limitations runs.

How will I know if the Shopify lawsuit settles? 

If a class is certified and a settlement is reached, affected merchants will receive court-mandated notice by mail or email at the address on record. You can also monitor the case directly at PACER under case No. 25-cv-2395.

Did Shopify really penalize merchants for using Sezzle? 

According to Sezzle’s lawsuit, Shopify began charging merchants a 1%–2% penalty fee on every transaction processed through Sezzle or other third-party BNPL providers starting in 2022. A federal judge found this allegation plausible enough to survive Shopify’s motion to dismiss in May 2026. No final ruling on liability has been made.

What law did Shopify allegedly break? 

Sezzle alleges Shopify violated Section 1 and Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act, the Clayton Act, the Minnesota Antitrust Law, and the Minnesota Deceptive Trade Practices Act. The judge dismissed the tying claim under Section 1 but allowed the monopolization and restraint of trade claims to move forward.

Sources & References

• Sezzle Inc. v. Shopify, Inc., File No. 25-cv-2395, U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota — PACER
• Sezzle press release announcing antitrust filing — GlobeNewswire, June 9, 2025 — globenewswire.com

Prepared by the AllAboutLawyer.com Editorial Team and reviewed for factual accuracy against official court records and published court filings. Last Updated: May 13, 2026.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Legal claims and outcomes depend on specific facts and applicable law. For advice regarding a particular situation, consult a qualified attorney.