EU hits Amazon with antitrust charges. A huge fine could follow

Authored by edition.cnn.com and submitted by TheColourofDeadMen
image for EU hits Amazon with antitrust charges. A huge fine could follow

London (CNN Business) The 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.

Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission's top antitrust official, accused Amazon on Tuesday of illegally abusing its dominant position as an online marketplace in Germany and France, the company's biggest markets in the European Union.

Amazon AMZN 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 Commission opened a formal investigation intoin July 2019to probe its dual role as marketplace and retailer. Ithas 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, Vestager said on Tuesday.

That allows Amazon to marginalize third-party sellers and cap "their ability to grow," she added.

s1lence_d0good on November 10th, 2020 at 15:53 UTC »

Every physical retailer in the US uses their retail data to launch their own private label products. CVS has blatantly copied half of Cerave's products for example.

TheSuspiciousKoala on November 10th, 2020 at 14:17 UTC »

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.

That's a pretty hefty fine. I hope they go for the maximum.

golgaltha on November 10th, 2020 at 13:45 UTC »

"The Amazon monopoly is being charged with using predatory monopolistic practices."