Amazon Fights EU for Allowing Separate Antitrust Sales Probe

(Bloomberg) -- Amazon.com Inc. is contesting a move by European Union antitrust regulators that allowed Italy to run a parallel investigation into concerns over how the e-commerce giant promotes sellers.

Amazon asked the EU’s General Court to strike down part of a European Commission decision last year to open an investigation into the “buy box,” where Amazon highlights sellers of a particular product. The U.S. company said the EU should not have added a carve-out allowing a similar Italian probe to continue.

“When the European Commission decides to investigate a matter, European law says that national competition authorities cannot investigate the same topic,” Amazon said in an emailed statement Wednesday. “This did not occur in this instance.”

The EU is checking how Amazon selects retailers for the highlighted buy box on pages that attract some 80% of sales. Officials will check how sellers can offer products to Amazon’s Prime loyalty program, which offers free delivery, and if that effectively favors Amazon’s own products and sellers that use Amazon’s logistics and delivery service.

The challenge was filed at the Luxembourg-based EU court on Jan. 19, according to the tribunal’s website. The EU usually takes over investigations from smaller national authorities.

The Brussels-based commission said it “takes note” of Amazon’s challenge against its decision and will defend its case in court.

Amazon added that it will “continue to cooperate fully with the commission and Italian authority’s investigations.”

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