European Commission accepts commitments from Amazon to end marketplace and Buy Box probes

 

European Commission accepts commitments from Amazon to end marketplace and Buy Box probes

The European Commission has decided under Article 9 of Regulation 1/2003, to accept commitments offered by Amazon, to address competition concerns in two investigations.

The first concerns the Amazon Marketplace where the Commission had provisionally concluded that Amazon's use of sensitive data from independent retailers violates Article 102 of the TFEU.

The second concerns Amazon Buy Box and Prime where the Commission had provisionally found that the arrangements for the Buy Box and Prime unduly favour Amazon's own retail and connected businesses.

Following consultation on proposed commitments in July 2022 the Commission has now decided to accept revised commitments.

Among the commitments Amazon has agreed that it will: 1) refrain from using non-public data relating to, or derived from, the activities of independent sellers on its marketplace, for its competing retail business; 2) apply non-discriminatory conditions and selection criteria for offers to appear in the Buy Box; 3) set non-discriminatory conditions and criteria for the qualification of marketplace sellers and offers to Prime; 4) refrain from using any information obtained through Prime about the terms and performance of third-party carriers, for its own logistics services.

Amazon must implement the commitments by June 2023. Some are heralding the commitments as a win for Amazon as the Commission rarely reverts to a commitments procedure after the issue of a statement of objections.

Meanwhile, the UK Competition and Markets Authority also launched a parallel abuse of dominance investigation into Amazon’s use of merchant data and the criteria for sellers to appear in its Buy Box.

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_7777

CMA finds BMW for failure to respond to information request in competition investigation

 

CMA finds BMW for failure to respond to information request in competition investigation

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has imposed a fine on BMW AG for failing, without reasonable excuse, to comply with a formal request for information issued under section 26 of the Competition Act 1998. The CMA has imposed a fixed penalty of £30,000 and a daily penalty of £15,000 (the maximum amounts possible), which it considers to be appropriate and proportionate in this case.

The CMA issued an information request to BMW AG in its ongoing investigation into whether certain vehicle manufacturers and trade associations have breached the Chapter I prohibition of the Competition Act 1998 as a result of anti-competitive practices relating to the use of recycled materials in cars and the associated arrangements for recycling old or written-off vehicles.

The CMA believes that elements of the arrangements were agreed outside but implemented in the UK.  The CMA formally required information from BMW Group, including its parent company BMW AG.

The wider BMW Group failed to respond to the CMA’s information request claiming that the CMA does not have jurisdiction to request information from a non-UK company. The CMA refutes this claim and considers that BMW AG has intentionally failed to provide information that is important to the CMA’s investigation.

The daily penalty will continue until BMW Group provides the requested information, the CMA issues an infringement decision or the case is closed.

Should the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill be passed in is current form, which is expected early next year, the CMA will be able to impose fines of up to 1% of a company’s global turnover if they fail to comply with information requests.

The case is interesting in a post-Brexit environment where the CMA can no longer rely on the arrangements for cooperation within the European Competition Network which allow EU competition authorities to obtain information from companies located in another Member State.

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/bmw-fined-for-failing-to-comply-with-cma-information-request