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Amazon moves to settle antitrust charges in Europe
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By Nithya Bose in Business News, posted July 16, 2022
Amazon attempted to settle a three-year investigation by European Union (EU) antitrust regulators by providing a number of modifications to its business operations.
The retailer has promised to discontinue online selling and marketing practices the regulators find as anti-competitive in an attempt to end two investigations.
The European Commission charged the firm in 2020 for exploiting its size, influence, and data to push its own products and obtain an unfair advantage over rival merchants who also use its platform.
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The online retail behemoth has committed not to use seller data for its own competitive retail business or private label products.
This will make it simpler for competitor businesses to contact customers through its website.
It will consider sellers fairly when ranking their deals for the "buy box" on its website, which accounts for the majority of its sales.
It will also create a second buy box for a competing product if its pricing and delivery time differ significantly from the product in the first box.
Sellers and offers for its Prime program will be selected using non-discriminatory methods.
They may also select their own logistics and delivery business rather than Amazon's alternative logistical services.
Customers and competitors have until September 9 to give feedback on Amazon's plan before the Commission decides whether to accept it or demand more.
If found in violation of EU laws, Amazon faces a punishment of up to 10 percent of its global revenue.
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The Seattle-based firm censured the Digital Markets Act, which would go into effect next year and identify it as an online gatekeeper liable to onerous regulations.
The company said: "While we have serious concerns about the Digital Markets Act unfairly targeting Amazon and a few other U.S. companies, and disagree with several conclusions the European Commission made, we have engaged constructively with the Commission to address their concerns.”
It said the concessions would "preserve our ability to serve European customers and the more than 185,000 European small and medium-sized businesses selling through our stores".
Source: Reuters
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