E.U. Antitrust Investigates Amazon Over Third Party Sellers and Own-Label Goods

[engine]

The European Union is opening an antitrust investigation into Amazon over the way data was used from third party sellers in its marketplace and its own branded products.

Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said: “We must ensure that dual role platforms with market power, such as Amazon, do not distort competition. Data on the activity of third party sellers should not be used to the benefit of Amazon when it acts as a competitor to these sellers. The conditions of competition on the Amazon platform must also be fair. Its rules should not artificially favour Amazon's own retail offers or advantage the offers of retailers using Amazon's logistics and delivery services. With e-commerce booming, and Amazon being the leading e-commerce platform, a fair and undistorted access to consumers online is important for all sellers.”

[ec.europa.eu...]

[JorgeV]

The problem is that this is also what stores are doing. Stores are selling products from different brands, as well as their own. When they see such or such product is getting popular, they start selling it under their own brand too.