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

The European Commission confirms that it has concluded 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 with the ‘buy box’ and Prime service.

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

According to the binding commitments, Amazon can no longer use non-public seller data for its own benefit. Own products may also no longer be favored in 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 into the digital shopping cart. According to the agreement, a second field must be added where an alternative product with a different price or delivery option will be displayed. Both offers must offer ‘the same purchasing experience’, the EC writes.

Finally, Amazon may no longer discriminate in granting access to the Prime service. Prime sellers are also free to choose their own delivery service, so they no longer have to rely solely on Amazon. Here too, the company may not use third-party data for its own logistics services.

Amazon’s buy box and Prime commitments are for a duration of seven years, instead of five as reported in the Financial Times article. The other commitments still apply for five years. Whether they will subsequently be dropped or whether other elements will take their place is unknown. If Amazon exceeds the commitments, the Commission could impose a fine of 10 percent of the tech giant’s annual turnover, or 5 percent of its daily turnover for each day the commitments are not met.