The Internet department store Amazon will change its business practices in Europe in the future and treat independent suppliers more fairly. Consumers should also benefit. This should make it easier for them to find cheap offers from small retailers. The US group has committed to these adjustments in order to end a competition procedure by the EU Commission. On Tuesday, the responsible Commission Vice President Margrethe Vestager announced in Brussels that this Changes were enoughto allay the concerns of EU competition watchdogs. The company has until June to make the switch.
The commitments “will fundamentally change the way Amazon operates in Europe, for the benefit of consumers” and sellers, said the Danish. Amazon takes on a delicate dual role: on the one hand, the website is a platform for offers from independent retailers, on the other hand, the group sells its own goods there. Three and a half years ago, the EU Commission began proceedings against the allegation that the Americans were using non-public business data from independent retailers to optimize their own offerings.
“Amazon uses this data to make decisions about what products to add, where to price, which suppliers to choose, and how to manage inventory,” Vestager said Tuesday. Two years ago, the Commission published their assessmentthat the mighty group is actually putting the independent providers at a disadvantage and distorting competition in this way. Last summer, Amazon announced concessions to avoid a billion-euro fine. the Commission discussed the changes with the smaller rivals and then demanded further touch-ups. Amazon agreed to this. Now Vestager has accepted these commitments as sufficient. If the company violates the agreement, a fine of up to a tenth of the annual worldwide turnover threatens.
In addition to the use of internal data, the dispute also concerned the criteria by which the Internet platform selects goods for the shopping cart field, the conspicuous box in which customers can order goods with one click. Another topic was the conditions under which independent retailers are allowed to offer goods in the popular Prime program, which does not involve delivery costs for consumers. On both issues, Amazon has apparently disadvantaged small rivals in favor of its own offerings.
Amazon objects to the authority, but obeys
In the future, fair conditions will apply here at Amazon, and the group will no longer use the internal data of the independent retailers. Vestager cited sales volume, turnover, deliveries, prices or the number of visitors to the website for the goods as examples of this data. An Amazon spokesman said the company was pleased “to have addressed the concerns of the European Commission and to have clarified these issues”. Although you take a different view than the EU authority on many points in the dispute, you have worked constructively with it.
The European association of consumer organizations BEUC welcomed the development: “Amazon’s commitments should offer consumers more choice in the online marketplace, so that consumers can more easily search for the cheapest offer,” said BEUC Director General Monique Goyens.
Amazon would be prohibited from evaluating the data of smaller competitors from 2024 onwards anyway. This settles that Digital Markets Act – abbreviated to DMA in English – which came into force recently. The legal act allows the Commission to so-called powerful Internet platforms such as Amazon gatekeepers to explain. These companies are gatekeepers and guideposts to the web for citizens; they can exploit this position to favor their own offers and disadvantage smaller rivals. That is why the law imposes special rules of conduct on gatekeepers. These are based on the Commission’s experience in competition proceedings against corporations such as Google’s parent company Alphabet, Apple or Amazon.
Apple also opens its closed system
Among other things, platforms are strictly prohibited there from using non-public data from independent providers for their own benefit. The decision as to who is the gatekeeper should be made next summer. In addition to Amazon, this will probably include Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, the Facebook parent Meta, Tiktok and Booking.com.
Another provision in the law requires providers such as Apple to allow multiple app stores on cell phones and tablets, i.e. portals for buying new software. Allowing only your own store, as has been the case up to now, would be prohibited. Last week it became known that Apple is actually already planning to open its own system – in anticipatory obedience.