Antitrust, what will Brussels do against Amazon?
How the European Commission is doing on Amazon. The Financial Times scoop on the ongoing investigation
Regulators are having difficulty finding evidence against the e-commerce giant almost two years after the investigation began.
Hard work is currently underway in Brussels to try to find evidence that may be sufficient to deliver penalties to Amazon, justified by antitrust violations. Although the investigation has now been underway for about two years, however, the work does not seem to be proceeding smoothly, according to the statements of people directly involved with the investigation itself.
In July 2019, EU regulators accused the online platform of manipulating its algorithms to "push" its products (that is, small tricks to improve their visibility), to the detriment of those of competitors. As a result, still state from the EU, users often fell back into purchasing products of lower quality but higher cost.
In the meantime, however, EU officials are still working to try to understand the functioning of the Amazon algorithm, despite the fact that a series of detailed questions have already been addressed to the Seattle company to try to understand the criteria used by the algorithm for, for example, to increase the visibility of a product.
According to the same sources, it is also unlikely that EU officials will also be able to directly view the proprietary code of the online retailer to collect evidence, due to the legal barriers present on trade secrets.
Antitrust investigators often face major obstacles in trying to decode the "black boxes" of company codes in this sector. “Cases involving algorithms are complex,” says a legal expert from Brussels. “But it is not the task of the EU to commit itself to decoding every corner of an algorithm or a code. It is up to the company that uses it to commit to providing one that is fair and loyal ”.
However, it has been noted by many that the EU case against Amazon is proceeding more slowly than other comparable investigations. Apple, for example, risks being fined for alleged abuses of its dominant music streaming platform after a two-year investigation.
The difficulties of the EU in completing the case underline the gap between its ambitious objectives of curbing the mighty advance of the so-called Big Tech and what often turns out to be reality, that is, a real difficulty in keeping these big companies in the grip.
The investigation against Amazon comes as Brussels seeks to increase control over Big Tech by publishing large new bills in December that aim to curb their power.
This is actually just one of two cases filed against Amazon in recent months. In November, the EU Commission formally accused the company of breaking competition rules by using information gathered from third party sales to increase its offers.
It is also investigating whether Amazon disadvantages third-party sellers in advertising their products to Prime members.
In addition to the difficulty of pursuing the case, Union officials have been presented with evidence to show that it may not be in Amazon's interest to disadvantage third-party sellers, as they contribute much of its profits.
"Why would Amazon want to worsen the customer experience if customers realize they can get better quality products for a cheaper price elsewhere?" asked a person with in-depth knowledge of the company.
People familiar with the Amazon case pointed out that despite the difficulties the EU is going through, antitrust investigations typically take years and Brussels may still be able to prevail and sanction the US company.
Meanwhile, Amazon declined to comment. The European Commission informs that the investigation is ongoing.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/ue-cerca-a-fatica-di-istruire-un-caso-antitrust-contro-amazon/ on Fri, 12 Mar 2021 13:13:26 +0000.