German competition watchdog examines Amazon pricing policy during corona crisis

The German Bundeskartellamt is investigating whether Amazon occupies a dominant position in Germany and is abusing that position during the corona crisis. There have been complaints that Amazon is banning merchants from its platform for allegedly outrageous prices.

The Bundeskartellamt is investigating whether and how Amazon influences the pricing of merchants on the German market. This is reported by the chairman of the Bundeskartellamt, Andreas Mundt, against the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The Bundeskartellamt is the German competition authority.

The authority has not yet determined that Amazon has market dominance. An investigation has been launched based on complaints that Amazon has blocked merchants due to high prices during the corona crisis. Several products rose rapidly at the start of the crisis, due to high demand and reduced supply, or the expectation that supply would decline as Asian production and supply suffered from measures to prevent the spread of the virus. to contain.

Amazon reports in a response to Handelsblatt that Amazon’s sales partners set their own product prices, but that Amazon’s systems are designed to take action to drive up prices. However, the Bundeskartellamt states that Amazon should not be a price regulator.