Amazon was found to have an unfair advantage over rival sellers in antitrust investigations. As a result, the e-commerce behemoth was forced to make the necessary changes in order to avoid a legal battle that could have resulted in significant fines.
Amazon has made concessions regarding the use of data on seller activities, product visibility, and delivery options.
The European Commission announced on Tuesday that it had accepted Amazon’s concessions to end investigations into anti-competitive practices.
What Will Amazon Do Differently?
Amazon, which operates a platform through which independent sellers can sell products directly to customers, competes with those sellers as well. This meant it had access to large datasets containing information about their activities, including non-public ones.
Amazon has pledged not to use any non-public data from independent sellers for its own retail purposes, according to the European Commission.
Read: How to earn money from Amazon with zero investment
The company also promised to give competing sellers’ products equal visibility in the Buy Box, a premium spot on the website that leads to increased sales.
The world’s largest online retailer also promised not to discriminate against sellers in its Amazon Prime membership service and to allow Prime members to use any delivery service they want. Changes to Prime and Buy Box are set to be in effect for seven years.
An Amazon spokesperson said:
While we continue to disagree with several of the preliminary conclusions the European Commission made, we have engaged constructively to ensure that we can continue to serve customers across Europe and support the 225,000 European small and medium-sized businesses selling through our stores.
Comments from the EU
According to the EU, an independent trustee will oversee the implementation of those commitments. In the event of a breach of commitments, Amazon could face a fine of up to 10% of its total annual revenue.
To read our blog on “Thanks to ads, Amazon purchasing has become worse and less dependable,” click here
