Amazon settles $79m Toys R Us suit

Amazon.com will pay $51 million to Toys R Us to end a long-standing legal dispute between the online retailer and the toy seller.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Amazon said it had agreed to settle the dispute, which began in 2004.

The lawsuit was over a partnership that gave Toys R Us exclusive rights to supply some toy products on Amazon's site. New Jersey-based Toys R Us claimed Amazon violated the partnership by letting others sell some toys on Amazon.com, while Seattle-based Amazon said the toy seller failed to keep items in stock.

The companies originally joined up in 2000 after the toy seller's website, Toysrus.com, suffered a brutal 1999 holiday season in which some customers' toys were not delivered until after Christmas. That partnership was supposed to last until the end of 2010.

The settlement comes two months after a New Jersey appeals court ruled against Amazon, agreeing with a lower court's 2006 ruling that Amazon breached the deal. That allowed a lower court to consider awarding damages to Toys R Us, which had not disclosed how much it was seeking in damages. The settlement will take the place of a court award.