Amazon are facing a new antitrust probe over alleged dominance abuse in ecommerce and logistics service on Amazon.com.
The Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) has launched a preliminary investigation yesterday against five Amazon groups including Amazon Services Europe, Amazon Europe, Amazon EU, Amazon Italia Services and Amazon Italia Logistica.
The AGCM alleges Amazon involvement in anti-competitive conduct. It says that Amazon have used their dominance in one market to control the other.
Amazon have granted benefits exclusively for Amazon FBA and Amazon Logistics merchants such as visibility and sales boost on Amazon.com. This suggests that merchants who independently fulfil their deliveries have possibly faced less financial gains as opposed to their counterparts who use Amazon’s fulfilment services.
The watchdog says that such conduct is against healthy competition based on merit rather than a financial incentive. It says that through these actions Amazon aimed to exploit their power by acting as an intermediator to significantly restrict competition in the fulfilment service. It concludes that this conduct had a negative impact on customers’ purchasing decisions.
The AGCM, Special Antitrust Unit of the Guardia di Finanza inspected yesterday the offices of involved groups. The investigation is expected to be complete on the 15th of April 2020.
This isn’t news for Amazon. Amazon have previously come under fire for exploiting its dual role as a markerplace and a retailer.
Last month, European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said that the EU could launch an investigation over Amazon’s use of third-party merchants’ data.
3 Responses
It is amazing it’s taken so long…..
Why is Amazon such a con marketplace to buy on?
I know previously that Chris wrote how fantastic he thought it was compared to eBay, but I find it a total con.
Just made my 2nd purchase on Amazon in the last 6 months and the 3 lowest priced sellers are all seller fulfilled offering postage ranging from £0.75p to £1.87 Delivery.
So why is it a con? At the checkout I was charged £3.00 delivery for the one showing 75p
The rest were no different, all postage costs were more than advertised.
@tyler it’s a known bug in there system that’s been going on since last Thursday. I’m amazed there’s not been more uproar in the press about it..