Consultation on proposed commitments in respect of Amazon’s UK marketplace
Consultation description
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) invites views on the commitments offered by Amazon to address the CMA’s competition concerns in the context of its investigation under the Competition Act 1998. The CMA investigation relates to the use of third-party seller data by Amazon’s retail arm, how Amazon sets and applies the conditions and criteria for selecting the offer that appears in the ‘Buy Box’ on product pages, and the ability of third-party sellers to independently negotiate terms and rates for Prime delivery services with carriers.
Amazon has offered commitments to:
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not use non-public data provided by third-party sellers to Amazon or derived through their use of Amazon’s marketplace services (or related services) for the purposes of its own retail operations that are in competition with third-party sellers
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apply objectively verifiable, non-discriminatory conditions and criteria to determine which offer (either from Amazon Retail or third-party sellers) will become the Featured Offer; and to not use Prime-eligibility or Prime-labelling as relevant criteria for selecting the Featured Offer
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allow the use of independently negotiated rates between carriers and sellers for Prime orders that are not fulfilled by Amazon
The CMA provisionally considers that the proposed commitments address the competition concerns identified by the CMA for the reasons set out in the Notice of Intention to Accept Commitments. Therefore, subject to consultation responses, the CMA proposes to accept the proposed commitments.
Any person wishing to comment on the commitments should submit written representations by email to amazonmarketplaceinvestigation@cma.gov.uk with the subject title ‘Case 51184 – Response to Amazon Proposed Commitments’ by 5pm on Friday, 1 September 2023.
More information can be found on the investigation into Amazon’s Marketplace case page.
