European Union Probing Amazon's Treatment of Merchants Using Its Platform
September 19 2018 - 11:04AM
Dow Jones News
By Sam Schechner and Valentina Pop
European Union antitrust authorities have opened a preliminary
investigation into Amazon.com Inc.'s treatment of other merchants
that sell products using its platform, starting a new regulatory
front against an American tech giant.
EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said Wednesday
that investigators recently sent out questionnaires to merchants
who use Amazon to sell goods as part of the preliminary probe. The
investigation focuses on whether Amazon is using customer data it
gathers via billions of transactions in ways that smaller merchants
selling the same products on Amazon might not be able to do, Ms.
Vestager said.
"The question here is about the data," Ms. Vestager said, adding
that the investigation was in its "very early days" and that her
office has "no conclusions" about whether to open a formal
probe.
A spokesman for Amazon didn't have any immediate comment.
Write to Sam Schechner at sam.schechner@wsj.com and Valentina
Pop at valentina.pop@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 19, 2018 10:49 ET (14:49 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024