Amazon is being investigated by Britain’s antitrust watchdog over concerns that some of its practices in the UK could be anti-competitive and result in worse treatment for buyers. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will look at whether Amazon worse deal is distorting competition by giving its own retail business or sellers using its services an unfair advantage compared to other third-party sellers on the Amazon UK Marketplace. The investigation will look at how the tech giant uses data from third-party sellers and how it decides the criteria for selling under the Prime label. The CMA will also look at how Amazon selects the preferred option in the “Buy Box,” which is prominently displayed on Amazon product pages and provides customers with one-click options to “Buy Now” or “Add to Cart.” basket” from a specific seller.
Sarah Cardell, General Counsel of CMA, said: “Millions of people across the UK rely on Amazon services for fast delivery of all kinds of products at the click of a button. “This worse deal is an important area, so it’s only right that we carefully investigate whether Amazon is using third-party data to unfairly boost its own retail business and whether it favors sellers using its logistics and delivery services, which could weaken competition. “Thousands of UK businesses use Amazon to sell their products and it is important that they are able to operate in a competitive market.
