The EU’s Competition Commission has opened a formal antitrust investigation into Amazon to investigate whether the company is using sales data to gain an unfair advantage over smaller sellers on the Marketplace platform. The Commission says it will look into Amazon’s agreements with marketplace sellers, as well as how Amazon uses data to choose which retailer to link to using the “Buy Box” on its site. The announcement comes on the same day that Amazon announced changes to its third-party seller service agreement in response to a separate antitrust investigation by German regulators.
A statement issued by the EC says that based on its preliminary fact-finding, “Amazon appears to use competitively sensitive information about marketplace sellers, their products and transactions on the marketplace.” Indeed, the EC has been in consultation with Amazon’s independent sellers since September of last year, with many complaining of counterfeiting and product copies, which they believe has harmed their businesses.
The EC will now investigate the standard agreements between Amazon and marketplace sellers, to determine whether Amazon’s access to accumulated marketplace data affects competition, as well as the role of the “Buy Box.” The Buy Box allows customers to add items from specific retailers directly to their shopping carts, but not all third-party sellers are able to use the function. The EC also wants to understand what impact that differentiation has on competition.
Amazon has fallen foul of the Commission before.
