European Commission confirms agreement with Amazon on the use of third-party data

The European Commission confirms that it has signed an agreement with Amazon. From now on, the company may no longer misuse sellers’ data for its own gain, and sellers may no longer receive preferential treatment in the ‘buy box’ and Prime service.

Since 2019, the European Commission has been investigating whether competing sellers on Amazon have been unfairly disadvantaged. Sellers using Amazon’s delivery services would also have earlier access to the so-called buy box and Prime service. It was previously leaked by the Financial Times that an agreement had been reached between the Commission and the company. Now that is confirmed by both parties.

Amazon is no longer allowed to use non-public seller data for its own benefit under the binding commitments. Also, own products may no longer be favored at the buy box, a field on the right side of an Amazon product page in which a specific seller is highlighted and buyers can put their products directly in the digital shopping cart. According to the agreement, a second field must be added to display an alternative product with a different price or delivery option. Both offers must offer ‘the same buying experience’, the EC writes.

Finally, Amazon may no longer discriminate when granting access to the Prime service. Prime sellers are also free to choose their own delivery service and therefore no longer have to go for Amazon alone. Here too, the company may not use data from third parties for its own logistics services.

Amazon’s buy box and Prime commitments are for seven years, instead of five as reported in the Financial Times article. The other commitments are still valid for five years. It is unknown whether they will expire afterwards or whether other elements will take their place. If Amazon exceeds the commitments, the Commission can impose a fine of 10 percent of the tech giant’s annual revenue, or 5 percent of its daily revenue for each day of non-compliance with the commitments.