The European Commission, an EU executive agency, sued Amazon for violating antitrust laws, claiming that it is using marketplace retail sales data to gain unfair advantage in the retail market.
EU authorities have long been questioning Amazon antitrust violations and have conducted an investigation into Amazon’s anti-competitive behavior since July 2019. What the EU authorities have to say about Amazon is that it is distributed on Amazon, playing a dual role in providing other retailers with a sales platform, a marketplace. It is believed that Amazon used the dual role to use data obtained from other retailers using the marketplace to sell its products and compete for prices.
According to a survey by EU authorities, it analyzed real-time access data for other retailers selling their products on Amazon’s marketplace, and helped them with the new products they launch, their prices and how they sell. The provisional view of the EU authorities is that this Amazonian practice could violate Article 102 of the EU Functional Treaty, TFEU, which stipulates the prohibition of abuse of dominant positions by obtaining undue gains from abuse of the monopoly of marketplaces.
EU authorities will investigate Amazon’s business practices for the Buy Box buttons and prime labels in a future investigation. The Amazon product page displays a large Add to Cart button on the right, and Amazon uniquely determines which seller the product is set to purchase from when the Add to Cart button is pressed. Investigation by EU authorities determines whether the selection of a vendor corresponding to the Add to Cart button is arbitrary. In addition, it is also said that how sellers are reaching out to the ever-increasing prime users.
The European Commission said in a statement that when moving to an Amazon retailer, data from rival third-party retailers should not be used for their own benefit. As Amazon is a major ecommerce platform, it provides fair and distortion-free access to online consumers Said it is important to all sellers to do. Related information can be found here .