EU Charges Amazon With Distorting Competition in Online Retail, Company Rejects Accusations

The EU made its first move against what it considered as anti-competitive practices by Amazon last July. The initial antitrust probe was launched to establish whether the shopping platform enjoys competitive advantages when it collects sensitive information from independent sellers.

The European Commission has charged the US retail company Amazon with unfair competition practices in online retail markets.

The regulators have also initiated a second probe into the US tech giant’s e-commerce business practices.

Amazon has denied the charges, arguing that the company occupies less than one percent of the global retail market.

The EU first launched an antitrust probe against the US company in July to look into the company’s alleged anti-competitive practices.

The commission specified that it would probe if and how the use of marketplace data about sellers — including their products and transactions — by Amazon as a retailer “affects competition.”

In particular, the investigation aimed to look into standard agreements struck between the shopping platform and independent sellers and the role the accumulated data plays in selecting winners of Amazon’s Buy Box, a button on a product’s page allowing customers to add items directly to their shopping carts.

Sourse: sputniknews.com