Amazon Settles Claims From EU Antitrust Authorities

Today the European Commission announcedthat the American online retailer Amazon agreed to make changes to its data processing policy, the operation of its marketplace, as well as the operation of its Prime and Buy Box services. This was done to settle claims from the European authorities, which in 2019 accused Amazon in violation of antitrust laws and obstruction of competition. At the time, the European Commission said that Amazon “systematically collects non-public business information from independent merchants trading on the Amazon platform and uses it to develop its own retail business that competes directly with independent merchants.”

As part of the agreement, Amazon agreed to stop using non-public data from sellers in order to use this data to make changes in the pricing policy of goods sold by Amazon itself and thus deprive competitors of part of the sales. Amazon also pledged to stop discriminating against independent sellers in its Buy Box service to select the best products by price and other parameters. Amazon has also committed to giving users of its Prime service the same access to all delivery services, ending the practice of forcing its own delivery service.

By reaching an agreement with the EU and agreeing to change its policy on independent sellers and delivery services, Amazon avoided heavy fines. In antitrust cases, the European Commission can impose a fine of up to 10% of the annual turnover. In the case of Amazon, this amount could be about $30 billion.

Evgeniy Khvostik