Amazon targeted by 900 million pound lawsuit in the UK
In a complaint brought on behalf of millions of users in the UK, Amazon is accused of illegally promoting its products on its platform.
“More than half of our physical product sales on our UK site come from independent seller partners,” adds Amazon. (Photo/Mark Lennihan)
KEYSTONE/AP/Mark Lennihan
The American giant Amazon is the subject of a lawsuit worth 900 million pounds (a little more than a billion francs during the day) brought on behalf of millions of users in the United Kingdom and which accuses it of illegally promote its products on its platform.
The suit is due to be filed by the end of October at the London Competition Appeal Court and will argue that the tech giant is abusing its dominant position and harming consumers, according to a statement released on Thursday.
«Buy Box»
The procedure, led by consumer rights activist Julie Hunter, claims that Amazon is tricking users into clicking on its “Buy Box” section through “a secret and favoring algorithm”. There are, according to this press release, products sold directly by the platform or by third-party sellers “who pay huge storage and delivery costs” to find themselves put forward.
“More than 80% of purchases on Amazon are made through offers contained in the Buy Box”, but “many independent sellers are excluded even when they offer the same product for less”, according to the press release. In a statement received by AFP on Thursday, Amazon replies that the complaint is “unfounded” and that the e-commerce giant “is still striving to support the 85,000 companies that sell their products on (its) store at UK”.
“More than half of our physical product sales on our UK site come from independent seller partners,” adds Amazon. In July, Amazon had proposed an agreement to close two investigations by the European Commission, which suspects it of violating competition rules, in particular in the preferential treatment of sellers using its delivery services.
Fine in Italy
The platform has pledged to provide “equal treatment to all sellers” for the “Buy Box” and “to display a second competing offer”. In particular, it promised, as part of its Prime program, to allow sellers “free choice of any carrier”.
The European Commission, which opened an investigation in July 2019, also criticizes Amazon for relying on commercial data from independent retailers to calibrate its own offer. However, an agreement has not yet been reached and discussions are continuing.
In Italy, the competition police imposed a fine of 1.128 billion euros on Amazon in December 2021 (almost as much in francs) for discriminating against sellers who had not used its logistics service. The firm appealed.
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