EU prepares to initiate a second round of antitrust lawsuits against Amazon
E-commerce and technology giant Amazon has already been sued by EU antitrust lawsuits last year. At that time, the focus of the lawsuit was on Amazon’s use of data from third-party sellers.
That is, Amazon collects third-party seller data through its own platform and then sells the same products on its own platform based on market sales to earn high profits.
The European Union believes that Amazon plays the role of both a retailer and a distributor, and uses third-party seller data to crack down on third-party sellers through such violations.
The results of the investigation have been released a few days ago. The European Union regulator sent a statement of objection to Amazon, which determined that the Amazon e-commerce shopping platform violated the anti-monopoly law.
Although the EU regulator has announced the results of the first round of antitrust lawsuits, the regulator is currently preparing a new antitrust lawsuit against the Amazon platform.
The focus of this antitrust lawsuit is on the user’s shopping cart. Normally, users will add items they plan to purchase or like to the shopping cart.
As a platform, Amazon can naturally see user shopping cart data, so Amazon can decide which products enjoy preferential prices based on its operating strategy.
For example, Amazon can display preferential prices for self-operated products added by users in the shopping cart, which can be used to discourage third-party sellers who sell the same products.
Of course, it is not yet clear whether Amazon actually has such behavior. The second round of EU regulators’ lawsuits is aimed at this issue, but an investigation is still needed.
Another focus of this round of investigation is whether third-party sellers can effectively contact Amazon member users. Amazon may deliberately isolate third-party sellers from contacting members.
The purpose of antitrust lawsuits initiated by EU regulators is to ensure that these companies can comply with the antitrust law, and if they do not comply, improvements are required.
Of course, a huge fine is indispensable if it is convicted of anti-monopoly issues, but the anti-monopoly lawsuit against Amazon has not yet determined the specific penalty amount.
Perhaps the regulator will combine the two antitrust lawsuits to impose huge penalties on Amazon, and at the same time require Amazon to immediately correct violations to ensure compliance with the law.
For third-party sellers, this is certainly good news. After all, Amazon’s crackdown on third-party sellers in recent years has increasingly seriously damaged the interests of sellers.
Via: TechCrunch
