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The European Commission on Tuesday accused US company Amazon of illegally abusing its dominant position in online retail markets in Germany and France, its largest markets in the European Union, according to CNN.
The Commission has also launched a second investigation into anti-competitive practices targeting the Amazon platform, amid suspicions that it is giving preferential treatment to its own offers or to merchants using its logistics and delivery services.
This is not the first time that Amazon has faced such an investigation. In July last year, the European Commission investigated the company for its dual role: that of producer and that of market for other traders.
According to the European Commissioner for Competition, Margrethe Vestager, Amazon uses the confidential data of its merchants to decide which products to launch and at what price.
“We have no problem with the success of Amazon or with the greatness of the company, our only concern is the methods it uses to control competition,” added the European Commissioner.
Over time, the European Union has proven to be a difficult market for companies due to strict rules on data protection, hate speech, tax and competition issues.
European officials have in the past punished other US companies like Google with billions of dollars in fines, and Amazon may suffer the same fate.
