Brussels accepts Amazon's changes on the use of data from its sellers so as not to violate competition

The European Commission has accepted the commitments made by Amazon that prevent it from using the data of its sellers, and by which it guarantees them equal access to its Buy Box functionality and its Prime service.

The measures, said Brussels in a statement published this Tuesday, resolve the Commission's doubts in terms of competition regarding the use by the technology giant of non-public data of sellers in the market and about a possible bias when granting access to vendors

"Today's decision establishes new rules applicable to the operation of Amazon in Europe," said Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice President of the Commission and Commissioner for Competition.

"Amazon will no longer be able to abuse its dual role and will have to change various business practices," concluded the Head of Competition.

Amazon has a particular position – dominant in several European markets – as regards the provision of online marketplace services to third-party sellers: on the one hand, it operates a marketplace on which these independent sellers market their products directly.

But, at the same time, it is one more merchant that competes with these.

Because of this, you have access to large data sets about the activities of independent sellers on your platform—including non-public business data—that you can't use to take advantage of your competitors.

In other words, it cannot abuse its dominant position to distort competition.

In 2019, the Commission began an investigation into Amazon's use of non-public data from its marketplace sellers.

The European Executive found that the US company's dependence on them to make its decisions distorted competition.

In addition, in November 2020, it opened a second investigation to assess whether the technology company gave preferential treatment in the Buy Box and Prime to its own sales activities or to sellers that used its logistics services.

The Buy Box highlights a seller's offer and allows you to purchase the product with a single

.

Prime offers special services to the customer who contracts it.

In December of last year, Italy sanctioned the North American giant with more than 1,100 million euros for these practices.

commitments

After the Commission concluded that the company was taking advantage of its position, Amazon introduced a series of measures to crack down on these practices.

After evaluating an initial proposal, a definitive commitment has now been reached.

Among other conditions, the platform will not use non-public data related to, or derived from, the activities of independent sellers in its marketplace for its retail activity.

In addition, it will not discriminate against other sellers or independent delivery services, and will add a second offer in the Buy Box that competes with the first.

In its statement, Brussels highlights that it has found that these commitments will ensure that Amazon does not use the data of market sellers for its own retail operations and that it grants non-discriminatory access to Buy Box and Prime.

This agreement will be valid for seven years.

Failure to comply could result in a fine of up to 10% of the company's total annual turnover, or a periodic penalty payment of 5% of daily turnover for each day of non-compliance.