Amazon, the world’s largest eCommerce company, was fined by the Italian Competition Authority. The reason is promoting its own logistics service, Fulfillment by Amazon. The regulators say that it abuses Amazon’s market dominance, thus putting third-party sellers at a disadvantage, forcing them to use the service to access benefits, such as selling products with Prime delivery without charging extra costs to customers and participating in sales.
According to the regulator’s statement, access to such services is crucial for the sellers on Amazon’s Marketplace, so the situation needs to be corrected under the review of a monitoring trustee.
In response, Amazon disagreed with the decision of the anti-trust regulator. The company says that small and medium-sized businesses have multiple channels to sell their products online and offline, and the Marketplace is only one of those options. If they decide to use Amazon’s platform, they can still use the Seller Fulfilled Prime service. It allows them to get Prime delivery benefits without using their own logistics services.
Also, Amazon stated that the company is constantly investing to support the growth of the 18 thousand Italian small and medium-sized businesses present on the Marketplace. All those sellers, including those who manage shipments themselves, have access to multiple tools.
Previously Amazon was fined in November. The fine was applied because the Beats headphones sales were limited to select retailers.
Amazon stated that they are going to appeal against both fines.
