#The EU to formally charge Amazon for antitrust violations, report says

At the crux of the case is Amazon’s position as a retailer that sells goods but also acts as a marketplace for third-party vendors. The European Commission will likely charge Amazon for abusing the data it has gathered on these third-party companies to better compete with them. 

The charges stem from a probe launched in July 2019. The Commission said at the time it will investigate the agreements between Amazon and marketplace sellers, which allow Amazon’s retail business to analyze and use third-party seller data, as well as the role of that data in the selection of retailers included in Amazon’s “Buy Box,” which allows buyers to add items from a specific retailer directly into shopping carts. 

“European consumers are increasingly shopping online. E-commerce has boosted retail competition and brought more choice and better prices. We need to ensure that large online platforms don’t eliminate these benefits through anti-competitive behaviour. I have therefore decided to take a very close look at Amazon’s business practices and its dual role as marketplace and retailer, to assess its compliance with EU competition rules,” Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said at the time.

Amazon declined to comment on FT’s story, and the European Commission did not reply to FT’s request for comment. 

Amazon has also been under scrutiny for possible antitrust violations in the U.S. But the EU has historically been tougher when it comes to actually imposing fines on tech giants for antitrust violations. Vestager’s past investigations into Google and Apple ended up in massive fines for these companies.