Prime suspect: Amazon to loosen logistics and delivery from EU retail
- Reference: 1671566768
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/12/20/amazon_ec_commitments/
- Source link:
The Register [1]reported that it would shortly make changes to its business practices late last week.
In a [2]statement this morning, the EC confirmed the online souk's promises settle two antitrust investigations, and, if breached, could resulted in fines of $50 billion, or 10 percent of global revenues. The first was launched in [3]November 2020 , looking into the criteria used by Amazon when selecting which seller gets to lurk in the "Buy Box" on its website. The concern was that Amazon favored its own offers or those of sellers who use the retail juggernaut's logistic and fulfilment services. The EC concluded this could create a "possible bias" in granting to sellers access to its Buy Box and Prime programs.
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The "Buy Box" – which allows buyers to easily add the product to their Amazon shopping cart – is critical for sellers as, according to the Commission at the time, it shows the offer of one single merchant for a given product and "generates the vast majority of all sales."
[5]
[6]
The "Buy Box" is also currently the subject of a [7]lawsuit filed by California's Attorney General in the US in September. That suit alleges Amazon illegally stifles competition by punishing merchants for selling their products at cheaper prices on other online stores by removing the "Buy Box" from the item's page.
Under today's announcement, Bezos's company has committed to treating "all sellers equally when ranking the offers for the purposes of the selection of the Buy Box winner."
[8]
It will also undertake "not use any information obtained through Prime about the terms and performance of third-party carriers, for its own logistics services" and let Prime sellers pick "any carrier for their logistics and delivery services and negotiate terms directly with the carrier of their choice."
[9]Amazon 'punishes' sellers who dare offer lower prices on other marketplaces
[10]Amazon to settle Euro antitrust probes by Christmas
[11]Too soon? Amazon commissions FTX mini-series
[12]Delta Airlines takes flight with Amazon Web Services
The second antitrust probe, begun in [13]2019 and with a Statement of Objections delivered in November 2020, had to do with how Amazon had been "systematically relying on non-public business data of independent sellers who sell on its marketplace, to the benefit of Amazon's own retail business, which directly competes with those third-party sellers."
The Commission found last year that that Amazon's reliance on marketplace sellers' "non-public business data to calibrate its retail decisions, distorted fair competition on its platform and prevented effective competition."
The EC said Amazon had proposed to commit "not to use non-public data relating to, or derived from, the independent sellers' activities on its marketplace, for its retail business" – and also wouldn't use it to sell branded goods or its own private label products.
The commitments will cover both Amazon's current and future marketplaces in the European Economic Area, the Commission confirmed.
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We've asked Amazon for comment. ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/17/amazon_eu_antitrust/
[2] https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_7777
[3] https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_2077
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y6I@juZp0DIfHGWv69CLPQAAABA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y6I@juZp0DIfHGWv69CLPQAAABA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y6I@juZp0DIfHGWv69CLPQAAABA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/20/amazon_uk_buy_box_tribunal/
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y6I@juZp0DIfHGWv69CLPQAAABA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/15/amazon_california_competition/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/17/amazon_eu_antitrust/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/24/amazon_ftx_mini_series/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/13/delta_lands_in_amazon_web/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2019/07/17/amazon/
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y6I@juZp0DIfHGWv69CLPQAAABA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Or even how about telling where they're shipping FROM?
I recently ordered a $12 silverware basket for my dishwasher.
It's being shipped via Royal Mail, which tells me my piddly little $12 plastic piece 'o crap is being shipped all the way across the Atlantic. And it still hasn't arrived. I ordered it mid-November, and it isn't supposed to arrive until next year.
Now I expected my A4 paper to come from Europe, but not this.
Brown envelopes
So the EU is not concerned about Chinese sellers selling products that don't meet regulations among other things?
Surely that is more harmful to the consumers and European businesses as for instance Chinese vendor does not have to fork out thousands and sometimes hundreds of thousands or even millions upfront to meet certification requirements?
It seems like again EU is focusing not so relevant things to appear they are doing something.
Re: Brown envelopes
"So the EU is not concerned about Chinese sellers selling products that don't meet regulations among other things?"
As far as I am aware, that is not handled by the EU, but by the trading standards authorities of the member states.
However, in some countries (including the UK) those have had their budgets cut, both to reduce government expenditure and to - supposedly - reduce the regulatory burden on businesses. But I am in favour of effective standards enforcement, to protect both consumers and traders/manufacturers who do comply with the rules.
Probaly the only reason I use Amazon
...is because the majority of time the parcels actually arrive.
Never mind letting sellers choose their shipper, what about requiring them to say which shipper they will use, so that we can avoid sellers who use Evri/Hermes.