EU Hits Amazon with Antitrust Charges for Abusing Its Dominance in Online Shopping
https://www.cnn.comThe European Union has unveiled formal antitrust charges against Amazon for abusing its dominance in online shopping and opened a second investigation into the company’s business practices.
The Commission opened a formal investigation into Amazon in July 2019 to probe its dual role as marketplace and retailer. It has been looking into agreements between Amazon and independent retailers, and whether data from sellers is being unfairly used by the e-commerce giant, which also sells its own products.
The investigation found that Amazon feeds non-public seller data, such as the number of products ordered and the sellers’ revenues, into its own retail algorithms to help it decide which new products to launch and the price of each new offer, Margrethe Vestager (the European Commission’s top antitrust official) said on Tuesday.
The Commission said that its preliminary view is that Amazon has breached EU antitrust rules, but that its investigation must be completed before any penalties are imposed. The probe could drag on for years and expose Amazon to potential fines of up to 10% of its annual global sales. That implies a maximum penalty of around $37 billion based on the company’s forecasts for revenue this year.
