This is how Amazon made peace with Brussels
The EU Antitrust has accepted Amazon's commitments that prevent the Bezos giant from using the data of marketplace sellers and guaranteeing equal access to Buy Box and Prime. With this agreement, the e-commerce giant puts an end to data investigations
End of antitrust investigations in the EU for Amazon.
The European Commission has accepted commitments offered by Amazon against the misuse of independent sellers' non-public business data and to avoid possible favoritism for those sellers who use its logistics and delivery services. The commitments from Jeff Bezos' company came following Brussels launching two formal investigations in 2019 and 2020 .
At the heart of the European probes are fears that Amazon has been able to gain an unfair advantage through insights into big data as a marketplace owner, how to optimize its prices or decide which new products to launch and when.
Margrethe Vestager, executive vice-president of the Commission responsible for competition, said yesterday during the press conference in Brussels in which she presented the case. "The decision establishes the rules that Amazon will have to respect in the future, instead of determine the rules for other operators on its platforms. With these new rules, independent retailers who compete” on online platforms, as well as “transport companies and European customers will have more opportunities and more choice,” concluded Vestager.
Today's announcement comes just a day after the European Commission informed Meta of its preliminary opinion that the company has infringed EU antitrust rules by distorting competition in online advertising markets, in breach of Article 102 of the EU Treaty. functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the same treaty that Amazon allegedly violated.
All the details.
AMAZON'S COMMITMENTS WITH BRUSSELS
Through the announced deal, the US tech giant will treat all sellers equally when ranking offers for the purpose of selecting the Buy Box winner and make competing products more visible on Amazon's "buy box," which generates the most of purchases on the site.
The Amazon platform will also have to show a second competing offer, compared to the Buy Box winner, if there is an offer from a different seller and sufficiently differentiated by price and/or delivery conditions.
Following a consultation between the European Commission and other interested players on the market, which took place between July and September 2022, Jeff Bezos's major offered a further series of commitments, expressing among other things the will to "improve the presentation of the second offer of the competing Buy Box”.
JUDGED SUFFICIENT BY THE EU ANTITRUST
The EU Antitrust has found that Amazon's final commitments will ensure that the company does not use sellers' data for its retail operations and there is non-discriminatory access to Buy Box and Prime services. The commitments are legally binding and cover all of Amazon's current and future markets in the European Economic Area. On the other hand, Italy is excluded as regards the commitments relating to the Buy Box and Prime by virtue of the remedies imposed directly by the National Competition Guarantor with a decision of 30 November 2021.
WHAT AMAZON RISKS IN THE EVENT OF A BREACH OF THE COMMITMENTS
If Amazon were to breach the commitments, it would risk a fine of up to 10% of its total annual turnover, or a penalty of 5% per day of its daily turnover for each day of non-compliance.
THE LOCATION OF SEATTLE'S E-COMMERCE COLOSSUS
The company was satisfied but also annoyed in commenting on the announcement of the EU Antitrust on the closure of two antitrust investigations relating to the use of Jeff Bezos' company of data from independent sellers and access to Buy Box and Prime services.
“We are delighted to have found a solution to the requests of the European Commission and to have closed these cases. While continuing to disagree with many of the preliminary conclusions" of the EU, "we have engaged constructively to be able to continue to serve customers throughout Europe and support the 225,000 European small and medium-sized enterprises that sell through our stores,” Amazon said in a statement.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia-on-demand/ecco-come-amazon-ha-fatto-pace-con-bruxelles/ on Wed, 21 Dec 2022 06:44:07 +0000.