The AGCM looks into the company’s alleged abuse of dominant position in e-commerce and logistics services.
Background: Last week, the board of the Italian competition authority (AGCM) decided to start an investigation into five companies part of the Amazon Europe group, two of which are based in Italy, for a possible violation of Article 102 of the Founding Treaty of the European Union, which prohibits abuse of dominant position in the internal market.
The allegations: In particular, the AGCM notes Amazon would give advantages in terms of visibility and sales improvement on Amazon.com only to third-party sellers that purchase Amazon’s own logistics services; those who do not do so do not have access to such advantages. The AGCM argues that such behaviour could be damaging competition based on merits; through such conduct, Amazon could also be able to unduly exploit its dominant position in the market for intermediation services on e-commerce platforms, in order to significantly restrict competition, to the detriment of consumers.
Next steps: The AGCM has already inspected the offices of some of the companies under investigation. It plans to conclude the investigation in a year, by 15 April 2020.
