Amazon has offered to share marketplace data with sellers and increase the visibility of rival products on its platform in an attempt to persuade EU antitrust investigators to finish their investigations without a fine before the end of the year, according to reports quoting sources with knowledge of the matter.

According to Reuters, the world’s largest online retailer is hopeful that its concessions will prevent a potential European Union fine of up to 10 per cent of its global turnover.

Amazon was charged by the European Commission in 2020 with abusing its scale, power, and data to push its own items and gain an unfair advantage over competing merchants who sell on its online marketplace.

It also started looking into Amazon’s apparent preferential treatment of its own retail offers and those of marketplace vendors who use its logistics and delivery services.

Amazon’s process for determining which retailers show in the “buy box” on its website and produce the majority of its sales was also scrutinised.

According to the sources, Amazon has proposed granting sellers access to some marketplace data while prohibiting its commercial arm from using seller data obtained by its retail operation.

According to the sources, the corporation will also build a second buy box for rival companies in the case that an Amazon product shows in the first buy box.

According to the sources, the EU competition enforcer is anticipated to seek comments from rivals and users in the next weeks, which might lead to changes to the proposal and a final decision by the end of the year.

Amazon and the Commission both declined to comment. The corporation previously stated that it disagreed with the watchdog’s findings and that it accounts for less than 1% of the global retail sector.

(Adapted from MoneyControl.com)

Categories: Economy & Finance, Geopolitics, Regulations & Legal, Strategy, Sustainability