UK regulator to probe Amazon marketplace practices

Britain’s competition watchdog has started an investigation into whether US online giant Amazon has been giving its own sellers an unfair advantage over third-party rivals on its marketplace.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) opened an investigation on Tuesday on concerns Amazon’s behaviour may be anti-competitive and could result in a worse deal for customers.

A separate European Commission probe is looking into similar concerns. The UK investigation will focus on three main areas, including how Amazon collects and uses third-party seller data and how it sets the eligibility criteria for selling under the Prime label, the CMA said.

“Millions of people across the UK rely on Amazon’s services for fast delivery of all types of products at the click of a button,” said CMA general counsel Sarah Cardell.

“This is an important area so it’s right that we carefully investigate whether Amazon is using third-party data to give an unfair boost to its own retail business and whether it favours sellers who use its logistics and delivery services – both of which could weaken competition.”

Reporting by Frank Prenesti at Sharecast.com