Regulators also found that Amazon’s rules and criteria for Buy Box and Prime favored its own retail businesses.
To settle the complaints, Amazon agreed to use non-public data related to, or derived from, the activities of independent sellers and not to use such data for the purposes of selling branded goods and its own private label products not.
To address Buy Box, Amazon has committed to treating all sellers equally when ranking offers while selecting the Buy Box winner, and to display a second competing offer to the Buy Box winner if there is a second offer is from another seller
To address the complaints about Prime, Amazon agreed to set non-discriminatory conditions for the qualification of marketplace sellers and offers to Prime. It will also allow Prime sellers to freely choose any carrier for their logistics and delivery services.
Will it be enough for the EU?
The European Commission has been unequivocal about its view of US tech companies in recent years.
Microsoft (MSFT ) – Get free report Alphabet (GOOGLE ) – Get free report Appeal (AAPL ) – Get free report Meta (META ) – Get free report and other big-name tech companies have faced, or are facing, billions of dollars in record fines for what the Commission considers abuse of power and influence.
Earlier this week, the EU Commission accused Meta Platforms of breaking antitrust rules and imposing “unfair trading conditions” on rival ad services that advertise on Facebook and Instagram.
The investigation comes after Meta was fined $402 million by Ireland’s data protection commission, the second largest fine ever issued under EU privacy rules.
Italy hit Amazon with a $1.3 billion fine last year for crowding out its competitors by favoring third-party sellers that use the company’s logistics services.
“Major gatekeeper platforms have blocked businesses and consumers from the benefits of competitive digital markets. The gatekeepers will now have to comply with a well-defined set of obligations and prohibitions,” the EU said after the Digital Markets Act was passed earlier this year which aims to has to make the technology sector “fairer and more contestable”.
The battle for international technology supremacy will continue, but the battlefield has many pitfalls for American companies looking to move into Europe’s territory.
