Amazon.com Inc. settled European Union antitrust investigations over how the U.S. ecommerce giant uses rivals’ sales data and whether it unfairly favors its own products.
(Bloomberg) — Amazon.com Inc. settled European Union antitrust investigations over how the U.S. ecommerce giant uses rivals’ sales data and whether it unfairly favors its own products.
The European Commission accepted proposals from Amazon, including a vow to stop using non-public data on independent sellers on its marketplace for its competing retail business.
Amazon also pledged to address concerns about the way its Buy Box for showcasing specific offers and Prime unduly favored its own retail business, as well as marketplace sellers that use Amazon’s logistics and delivery services.
The Brussels-based commission said it “found that Amazon’s final commitments will ensure that Amazon does not use marketplace seller data for its own retail operations and that it grants non-discriminatory access to Buy Box and Prime” and that it “decided to make them legally binding.”
The company said in a separate statement that while it’s pleased to resolve the case, it continues to “disagree with several of the preliminary conclusions” the EU’s antitrust arm made. It said it has “engaged constructively to ensure that we can continue to serve customers across Europe and support the 225,000 European small and medium sized businesses selling through our stores.”
While the deal takes off some of the regulatory pressure Amazon has been facing over accusations it has become too dominant a force in European ecommerce, the tech company continues to be subject to scrutiny from Germany’s Federal Cartel Office and the UK’s competition watchdog.
The settlement is the latest round in a long-running Europe-wide crackdown on the market power of tech firms such as Google, Apple Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. that’s led to multiple probes, fines and beefed-up laws.
The commission said that a violation of the agreed deal could result in a fine of up to 10% of the company’s worldwide sales, without the EU regulator having to prove an infringement of antitrust rules — or a periodic penalty payment of 5% per day of Amazon’s daily revenue for every day of non-compliance.
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