EU: Amazon may unfairly use third-party sellers’ data

EU antitrust Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said Wednesday she is taking a “very close look at Amazon’s business practices and its dual role as marketplace and retailer, to assess its compliance with EU competition rules.”

The EU opened a preliminary probe into the issue last year, and Vestager said Wednesday it has shown that “Amazon appears to use competitively sensitive information — about marketplace sellers, their products and transactions on the marketplace.”

Using the information could give Amazon a competitive edge. Vestager said: “We need to ensure that large online platforms don’t eliminate these benefits through anticompetitive behavior.”