Amazon.com Inc. was fined greater than 1.1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) in an Italian antitrust probe that accused the retail big of “dangerous” practices and abusing its dominant place. The fantastic is likely one of the largest penalties handed out by a European regulator.
The tech big has expanded its delivery companies in Europe, with the intention of persuading native companies to launch their very own trucking corporations to solely transport freight for the corporate. The retailer additionally tied entry to a set of unique advantages to using its personal logistics, the regulator mentioned.
“Amazon holds a dominant place within the Italian marketplace for intermediation companies on marketplaces, which Amazon leveraged to favor the adoption of its personal logistics service,” The Italian antitrust regulator mentioned in a press release on Thursday.
Amazon final month misplaced a European Union court docket bid to stop the EU and Italy from working parallel antitrust probes into issues over how the agency treats sellers on its platform.
The European Fee is taking a look at how Amazon selects retailers for the highlighted purchase field on pages that entice some 80% of gross sales. In addition to how sellers can supply merchandise to Amazon’s Prime loyalty program, which presents free supply, and if that successfully favors Amazon’s personal merchandise and sellers that use Amazon’s logistics and supply service.
“We strongly disagree with the choice of the Italian Competitors Authority and we are going to attraction,” Amazon mentioned in a press release. “The proposed fantastic and treatments are unjustified and disproportionate.”
The U.S. firm has drawn scrutiny in recent times for the huge trove of knowledge it has amassed on a spread of shoppers and companions, together with unbiased retailers who promote on its retail market, customers of its Alexa digital assistant, and buyers whose shopping and buy historical past inform what Amazon reveals them on its web site.
The information safety fee of Luxembourg, the place Amazon has its EU base, in July slapped the corporate with a document 746 million-euro fantastic for processing private information in violation of the EU’s Normal Information Safety Regulation. Germany has a number of antitrust probes into Amazon’s gross sales. The U.Okay. can be analyzing comparable points to the EU. Within the U.S., Amazon faces rising scrutiny and calls to interrupt up the retailer.
Amazon is No. 1 within the 2021 Digital Commerce 360 High 1000.
The EU fee has additionally mentioned it sees potential antitrust issues with voice assistants and the information they permit Amazon and others to gather on person habits.
The Italian watchdog mentioned it ordered Amazon to make various adjustments, together with “to grant gross sales advantages and visibility on Amazon.it to all third-party sellers that are in a position to adjust to honest and non-discriminatory requirements for the success of their orders.”
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