More than 300 billion fines do not need to be paid, Amazon settles three major EU antitrust investigations

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Phoenix.com Technology News, December 21, Beijing time, e-commerce giant Amazon reached a settlement with the European Union on three antitrust investigations on Tuesday. The company previously avoided a fine of up to 10% of its global annual turnover by addressing EU concerns over its use of seller data. Amazon’s 2021 revenue will be US$469.8 billion, and a 10% fine will be as high as US$46.98 billion (about 327.1 billion yuan).

In the first case, Amazon is accused of using its size, clout and data to promote its own products to gain an unfair advantage over competitors who also use its platform. Now, the company has agreed not to use sellers’ data for its own competing retail business and private-label products.

The second case concerns whether Amazon treats every seller equally when it sorts offers on its site for the “buy box,” which accounts for the majority of Amazon’s sales. Amazon has agreed to prominently place a second berth for a competitor’s product if it differs significantly in price and delivery method from the product in the first berth. In the third case, Amazon agreed that sellers of the Prime service can choose their own logistics and delivery services, rather than the logistics and delivery services approved and selected by Amazon.

Amazon said it was pleased to have addressed the European Commission’s concerns. “While we still disagree with many of the preliminary conclusions reached by the European Commission, we have engaged constructively to ensure that we can continue to serve our customers across Europe,” a company spokesman said. (Author/Xiao Yu)

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