Margrethe Vestager, the top antitrust official of the European Commission, said so on Tuesday that an investigation found that Amazon may have illegally abused its dominant position as a market service provider in Germany and France, the company’s largest markets in the European Union.
Amazon used data from non-public sellers to power its retail algorithms to decide which new products to launch and the price of each new offering, Vestager said. “We don’t question Amazon’s success or size, our concern is very specific business conduct that appears to distort competition,” he added.
The European Commission said in July last year that it had opened a formal investigation Amazon (AMZN) to explore its dual role of market and retailer. The Commission looked into agreements between Amazon and independent retailers and whether sellers’ data is being used unfairly by the e-commerce giant, which also sells its own products.
The Commission said Tuesday that its preliminary view is that Amazon has violated EU antitrust rules, but that its investigation must be completed before sanctions are imposed.
How big tech companies use data and treat their smaller rivals has become a major focus for regulators on both sides of the Atlantic. Last month, the US Department of Justice accused Google of stifling competition to maintain its powerful position in the online search and search-associated advertising market.
The European Union has emerged as a key battleground for technology due to its strict rules on data protection, hate speech, taxation and competition issues. EU officials have a long track record of targeting US tech companies such as Google (GOOGL) with fines worth billions and Amazon could suffer the same fate.
– This is a developing story and will be updated.
