US e-commerce giant Amazon on Tuesday reached a settlement with the European Union over two investigations into its anti-competitive practices and handling of user data, Reuters reported.
In the first case, the company, founded and led by Jeff Bezos until last year, was investigated for using its market share and power, as well as data collected from users, to give its products an unfair advantage over competitors on its e-commerce platform.
Amazon has agreed not to use this data for its retail business and the products it has developed.
The second case concerned the equal treatment of sellers when their offers are classified in the so-called “buy box” on Amazon’s site, which generates the majority of sales.
Amazon has agreed to create a second identically visible box for a competitor’s product if it differs significantly in price and delivery date from the product in the “shopping box”.
The EU and Amazon say they are satisfied with the agreement reached
“The Commission has determined that the final commitments made by Amazon will ensure that Amazon will not use Marketplace sales data for its own retail operations and will provide non-discriminatory access to Bux Box and Prime,” the European Commission said in a statement sent to the press .
“We are glad that we managed to mitigate the concerns of the European Commission and resolve these issues,” said a company representative.
The EU executive said that Amazon’s final commitment will remain in place for 7 years for Prime and the display of the second box for sale, and for 5 years for the remaining items.
The Commission also announced that it would establish an independent board to oversee the implementation and enforcement of the agreement.
Amazon faces a fine of up to 10% of annual turnover if EU authorities find it guilty in two cases. But the commission warned that tearing up the agreed deal would have the same result.
Last year, Amazon received the largest fine in EU history for violating the GDPR regulation, which governs the processing of private data within the bloc.
The EU-Amazon deal comes just a day after the European Commission accused another American giant, Meta/Facebook, of anti-competitive practices.
Source: Hot News
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