The European Commission is satisfied with several commitments from the online shopping platform Amazon to better comply with European competition rules. The deal means Amazon escapes a potential billion-dollar fine.
The American company promises not to use other sellers’ data to improve its brands and stop favouring some sellers.
Amazon’s promises remain valid for five years and some seven years, the committee and the company have agreed. The committee has recorded the commitments and made them binding to hold the company to them. If it does not, Brussels can immediately impose the averted fine.
The executive board of the EU, which ensures that companies compete pretty, opened an investigation into Amazon’s practices in 2019. If that had worked against Amazon definitively, it could have cost the company 10 percent of its global annual sales.
The committee’s concerns included using data from sellers selling their products on the platform. As a result, Amazon would counterfeit products that sell well under its brand. Another complaint concerned Amazon’s handling of the so-called buy box.
