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• CMA is looking into Amazon’s practices that affect domestic sellers, which may be anti-competitive and result in a worse deal for customers
Britain’s antitrust watchdog on Wednesday said that it is investigating e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) on concerns that it was hurting competition by giving its own sellers an unfair advantage in its marketplace over third parties.
Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it has opened a probe on July 5 into whether Amazon’s practices that affect domestic sellers may be anti-competitive and result in a worse deal for customers.
“Millions of people across the UK rely on Amazon’s services for fast delivery of all types of products at the click of a button. This is an important area, so 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 favors sellers who use its logistics and delivery services – both of which could weaken competition,” Sarah Cardell, general counsel at the CMA, said in a statement.
A spokesperson for Amazon told Reuters that the e-commerce giant would work closely with the CMA during its investigation, adding that sales from the company’s selling partners continued to grow faster than Amazon’s retail sales.
Last month, Amazon offered to share marketplace data with sellers and boost the visibility of rival products on its platform after the European Union started looking into similar concerns in 2020.
The British regulator said its investigation would focus on three main areas, including how the e-commerce giant collects and uses third-party seller data and how it sets the eligibility criteria for selling under the Prime label.
Picture Credit: BGR
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