Amazon is being investigated by the British antitrust agency over the concern that some of its practices in the UK may be anti-competitive and lead to a worse deal for buyers.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will examine whether Amazon is distorting competition by giving an unfair advantage to its own retail business or to sellers who use its services, compared to other third-party sellers in the Amazon UK market.
The research will examine how the tech giant uses data from third-party vendors and how it decides the criteria for selling under the Prime label.
The CMA will also examine how Amazon selects the preferred option in the “Purchase Box”, which is prominently displayed on Amazon’s product pages and offers customers one-click options for “Buy Now” or ” Add to cart “from a specific seller.
Sarah Cardell, CMA general counsel, said: “Millions of people across the UK rely on Amazon’s services for fast delivery of all kinds of products with a single click.
“This is an important area, so it’s right that we investigate carefully whether Amazon is using third-party data to give an unfair boost to its own retail business and whether it favors sellers who use its logistics and delivery services, both could weaken competition.
“Thousands of UK companies use Amazon to sell their products and it’s important that they can operate in a competitive market.
“Any loss of competition is a loss for consumers and could cause them to pay more for products, be offered lower quality items or have fewer options.”
As the investigation progresses, the CMA said it will aim to communicate with the European Commission, which has been investigating similar concerns in the EU.
Amazon.com did not immediately respond to a request for comment.