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Amazon logo packages are transported at the Amazon Redistribution Center for Horn-Bad Meinberg, West Germany, December 9, 2024.
Inna Fasbander | AFP | Gets the image
German antitrust regulators warned Amazon On Monday, company pricing mechanisms for other sellers may adopt competition legislation.
Federal cartel – Note In its preliminary estimate that Amazon pricing limits the visibility of sellers and “based on the opaque market rules,” prevents their freedom set prices.
Amazon uses algorithms and statistical models to calculate certain price restrictions on products, Cartel Office reports. Products marked as “too high prices” or “prices that are not competitive” can be reduced in search results excluded from advertising or removal from the “Purchase” box, they added.
Buy Box is a list that pops up at first when the visitor clicks on a particular product, and the one that is purchased when the buyer presses “add to the basket”.
“Competition in Internet trade in Germany is largely determined by the Amazon rules for the trading platform,” Andreas Mandt, President of the Federal Cartel Office, said in a statement. “As Amazon competes directly with other retail traders on its platform, affecting competitors pricing, even in the form of prices, is fundamentally doubtful in terms of competition.”
Amazon’s pricing practice not only threatens sellers, but can also harm other retailers, scaring them off at a lower prices, Cartel reports.
Amazon’s press -secretary said the company strongly disagrees with the preliminary conclusions of the cartel. They added that any changes in Amazon pricing will be “bad for customers and selling partners.”
“If Amazon cannot help people find proposals at competitive prices, it will lead to a bad purchase for them, because we will need to promote non -competitive or even abusive prices in our store,” the press secretary said. “It will mislead customers, thinking they get good value if, in fact, they are gone.”
Amazon can give feedback to the cartel according to the previous assessment before it comes to the final decision.
Amazon In 2022 reached an agreement with the antitrust regulators of the European Union, which investigated the use of the seller’s data and buy the practice box. As part of the Amazon settlement, he agreed to show the second box for the purchase on products sold in Europe if there are second competing offers that are different from the cost or delivery.
The US Federal Trade Commission also conducts a probe of pricing algorithms on Amazon on its broad third market as part of a broad antitrust lawsuit Submitted in 2023. Amazon said the FTC complaint was “wrong with the law.”
The case should go to court in October 2026.
