Amazon has been accused of violating antitrust laws in Europe, with the European Commission alleging that Amazon takes advantage of confidential third-party business data to further its own competing retail business.
Amazon has been accused of violating antitrust laws in Europe, with the European Commission alleging that Amazon takes advantage of confidential third-party business data to further its own competing retail business. Announced on Tuesday, the European Commission has informed Amazon of its „preliminary view“ that it had breached EU antitrust rules covering online retail. The Commission believes that Apple is abusing its position as a retail platform to monitor sales data generated by independent sellers that use its website, which it then employs to improve its own rival product offerings. The Commission is also starting a second formal antitrust investigation, looking into the „possible preferential treatment“ of Apple’s own products and for items from marketplace sellers that employ Amazon’s logistics and delivery services. „We must ensure that dual role platforms with market power, such as Amazon, do not distort competition,“ said Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager. „Data on the activity of third-party sellers should not be used to the benefit of Amazon when it acts as a competitor to these sellers.“ The argument is that Amazon’s control over the retail platform makes it privy to data that independent retailers using Amazon would generate, but wouldn’t usually share with competitors.
