Amazon faces UK probe over suspected anti-competitive practices

• Amazon’s tactics that influence sellers on its domestic marketplace may be anti-competitive.
• Britain’s CMA announced it had begun an investigation into the matter.
• Amazon will actively cooperate with the CMA during its inquiry, a spokesperson said.

Because of worries that the American internet giant was undermining competition by giving its own merchants an unfair edge over other vendors in its marketplace, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN.O) is being investigated by Britain’s antitrust watchdog.

Amazon’s tactics that influence sellers on its domestic marketplace may be anti-competitive and lead to a worse bargain for customers, according to Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which announced it had begun an investigation into the matter on Tuesday.

According to Sarah Cardell, general counsel at the CMA, “It’s right that we carefully investigate whether Amazon is using third-party data to give an unfair boost to its own retail business and whether it favours sellers who use its logistics and delivery services – both of which could weaken competition.”

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According to the CMA, millions of consumers in Britain use Amazon’s services for quick delivery.

According to an Amazon spokeswoman, the business will actively cooperate with the CMA during its inquiry. The spokesperson also noted that sales from the company’s selling partners have continued to increase more quickly than Amazon’s retail sales.

The CMA stated that it seeks to coordinate with the EC and that the examination is a follow-up to a current European Commission (EC) investigation looking at comparable issues but excluding those impacting Britain after Brexit.

In November 2020, EU antitrust authorities accused Amazon of stifling competition in online retail markets and launched a second inquiry into the firm’s operations.

The Financial Times reported on Wednesday that as part of an agreement with the EU, Amazon will provide customers more product options and share more data with competitors.

According to the FT, Amazon would grant third-party merchants on its marketplace access to data that could aid in increasing online goods sales.

The Seattle-based company’s data collection and use practises, as well as how it determines which products qualify for the Prime designation, will be the major subjects of the British regulator’s probe, it was announced.

Separately, on Wednesday, Germany’s antitrust authority imposed harsher monitoring guidelines on the e-commerce behemoth, claiming that Amazon’s position is of exceptional, cross-market relevance for competition.

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