The delegacy , which represent the EU ’s top antitrust regulator , enjoin in astatementthat its preliminary view is that Amazon ’s marketplace hoard twisty data on the sales of third - political party retailer and then uses that datum to launch its own products and undercut its competition . The mission writes :
As a marketplace inspection and repair supplier , Amazon has access to non - public business organization data of third party sellers such as the number of ordered and shipped units of intersection , the seller ’ gross on the marketplace , the act of visits to sellers ’ offer , information relating to shipping , to sellers ’ preceding public presentation , and other consumer claims on intersection , include the activate warrantee .
The Commission ’s preliminary findings show that very turgid quantity of non - public seller data are usable to employee of Amazon ’s retail business and course directly into the automatize systems of that business , which aggregate these data and use them to fine-tune Amazon ’s retail offers and strategic business decisions to the hurt of the other marketplace sellers
Photo: Mandel Ngan (Getty Images)
This charge is one of the most rough-cut charges against Amazon as an anti - competitive outfit , and it was one that Senator Elizabeth Warren focused on inher planto dampen up swelled technical school in the United States .
Acongressional reportfrom October allege that around 2.3 million third - party vendor do business on the Amazon market . The reasoning move that , consort to the report ’s finding , Amazon fundamentally uses those businesses for intensive literal - time marketplace enquiry that ’s used in selecting which products are admit in itsAmazon Basicsline , just to give one case . It can then supervise competition for , say , a meretricious coffee flowerpot and adjust positioning or pricing accordingly , creating an uneven playing field for contender , the theme feel .
But the EU moves very slowly and its procedural steps canbe confusing . Amazon still has the right to respond and adjudicate to reason its path out of this before the machinery really kicks into gear . But the European Commission also announced this cockcrow that it is opening a 2d antimonopoly probe into whether Amazon ’s use of its “ Buy Box ” for summate detail to a cart “ leads to preferential handling of Amazon ’s retail business or of the sellers that apply Amazon ’s logistics and delivery services . ” We ’ll belike have to check back in on that one in a couple of year .
Amazon did not immediately respond to Gizmodo ’s postulation for comment , but a interpreter for the caller toldCNNthat it disagree with the EU ’s position and it intends to “ continue to make every campaign to ensure it has an accurate intellect of the fact . ”
In 2017 , the EUorderedAmazon to pay $ 295 million in back tax . By March of this twelvemonth , Amazon was still continuing to make every feat to ensure the EU has an accurate discernment of the fact that itdoes not wantto pay up those back tax .
The European Commission ’s Executive Vice - President , Margrethe Vestager , said in a statement :
We must ensure that dual part weapons platform with market mogul , such as Amazon , do not distort competition . data point on the activity of third political party sellers should not be used to the benefit of Amazon when it pretend as a competitor to these trafficker . The condition of challenger on the Amazon platform must also be fair . Its principle should not artificially prefer Amazon ’s own retail offers or advantage the offers of retailer using Amazon ’s logistics and bringing service . With e - commerce booming , and Amazon being the lead e - commercialism platform , a fair and undistorted accession to consumers online is important for all sellers .
Vestager has built areputationas an effectual punisher of heavy tech ’s misbehaviour , and Amazon should hope that it fancy out a agency to secure she has “ an exact understanding of the fact ” because CNN Business count on that the fines for the case focused on marketplace data could reach up to$37 billion .
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