Amazon (AMZN.O) has offered to share marketplace data with sellers and boost the visibility of rival products on its platform, trying to persuade EU antitrust regulators to close their investigations without a fine by the end of the year, people familiar with the matter said.
The world’s largest online retailer is hoping its concessions will stave off a potential European Union fine that could be as much as 10% of its global turnover, Reuters reported last year. read more
The European Commission in 2020 charged Amazon with using its size, power and data to push its own products and gain an unfair advantage over rival merchants that sell on its online platform.
It also launched an investigation into Amazon’s possible preferential treatment of its own retail offers and those of marketplace sellers that use its logistics and delivery services.
Amazon’s process for choosing which retailer appears in the “buy box” on its website and which generates the bulk of its sales also came under the spotlight.
Amazon has now proposed to allow sellers access to some marketplace data while its commercial arm will not be able to use seller data collected by its retail unit, the people said.
The company will also create a second buy box for rival products in the event an Amazon product appears in the first buy box, the people said.
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Source: Amazon offers to share data, boost rivals to dodge EU antitrust fines | Reuters
No way that this is enough. A marketplace owner has no business offering products on their own marketplace at all. That’s always going to be unfair competition. It also fails to address many of the other monopoly problems, like forcing sellers to exclusively use Amazon or downgrading their search results, forcing sellers to use the Amazon delivery options as well as forcing other delivery parties out of business by delivering under cost price.
Robin Edgar
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