According to reports, people familiar with the matter said today that Amazon has proposed to share market data with sellers on its platform and improve the visibility of competitors' products on its platform. The move is aimed at persuading EU antitrust regulators to end the investigation before the end of the year without being fined. In november2020, the European Commission accused Amazon of using its scale, strength and data to gain an unfair advantage over smaller businesses selling on its platform.
In addition, the EU has launched another survey to assess whether Amazon gives preferential treatment to its own retail goods and market sellers using its logistics and delivery services.
In November last year, it was reported that Amazon was seeking to reach a settlement on the two EU antitrust investigations, hoping to avoid potential huge fines and business model changes. People familiar with the matter said at the time that Amazon was having preliminary discussions with the European Commission and had offered concessions to address their concerns. Reconciliation negotiations could take months.
People familiar with the matter said today that Amazon now proposes to allow sellers to access some market data, while its business department will not be able to use the seller data collected by its retail department. In addition, Amazon also agreed to improve the visibility of competitor products on its platform.
People familiar with the matter said that the European Commission is expected to solicit feedback from competitors and users in the next few weeks, which may lead to adjustments to Amazon's proposal, and the final decision will be made before the end of the year.
The European Commission can impose fines of up to 10% of the global turnover on the companies investigated. For Amazon, the amount of fines can reach US $38.6 billion based on its 2020 revenue. Amazon has previously said that it disagrees with the views of the European Commission because its share in the global retail market is less than 1%.