The EU's competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, has begun a preliminary investigation into how Amazon uses third-party merchant data. In the US, Amazon's business model is based on selling products and services to consumers at low prices. EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager launched the proactive probe based on suspicions arising from its own observations of the market and the results of an earlier inquiry into the sector conducted last year. Due to concerns that Amazon may be abusing this position, the EU's antitrust watchdog has issued questionnaires to merchants regarding their relationship with the commerce giant. The action is not a formal investigation. Google was fined €2.4bn ($2.8bn) last year by the EU for abusing its market control.
The EU's competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, has begun a preliminary investigation into how Amazon uses third-party merchant data. In the US, Amazon's business model is based on selling products and services to consumers at low prices. Due to concerns that Amazon may be abusing this position, the EU's antitrust watchdog has issued questionnaires to merchants regarding their relationship with the commerce giant. The action is not a formal investigation. Google was fined €2.4bn ($2.8bn) last year by the EU for abusing its market control.