EU competition watchdog launches probe into Amazon’s business practices
Amazon's business practices will be put under the microscope as the EU competition watchdog launched a probe into how the retailer uses data collected from smaller merchants.
The preliminary investigation will scrutinise how the online shopping giant uses data it collects as a host for merchants and as a seller itself, as Amazon sells its own products alongside those of smaller businesses.
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EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said questionnaires have been sent to market participants in order to fully understand the issues, however the investigation is in its very early stages and the case has not been formally opened.
"The question here is about the data," Vestager said at a press conference today.
"If you, as Amazon does, get the data from the smaller merchants that you host, which of course can be completely legitimate because you can improve your service to these smaller merchants, do you also then use this data to do your own calculations into what is the new big thing, what is it that people want, what are the offers that they like to receive, what makes them buy things?"
The investigation was prompted by the commissioner's sector inquiry which was carried out last year.
"We are gathering information on the issue and we have sent quite a number of questionnaires to market participants in order to understand this issue in full," Vestager said.
"These are very early days and we haven't formally opened a case. We are trying to make sure that we get the full picture."
Amazon declined to comment.
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