Amazon’s UK Marketplace is being probed by the competition regulator in connection with concerns around anti-competitive practices on the platform. The wide-ranging investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will consider whether the online retail giant was abusing its dominant market position by giving an unfair advantage to sellers that used its services.
The CMA said it would also examine how Amazon collects and uses third-party seller data and whether this gives the firm an unfair advantage in relation to business decisions made by its retail arm which sells products on the platform.
Amazon’s Marketplace contains products supplied by the company’s own retail business, but a large proportion of the goods listed come from third-party sellers. The CMA said Amazon also provides services to these third-party sellers, including matching them with consumers, but also offers some optional extras such as its Fulfilment by Amazon service, which handles the storage, packaging and delivery of third-party goods.
