Brussels has decided to take legal action against the American e-commerce giant, which it accuses of illegally abusing its dominant position in Germany and France, its two largest markets in Europe.

Nicolas Barré takes stock of a current economic issue.

Brussels is attacking Amazon, the big winner of containment.

After a year and a half of investigation, the Commission decided to take legal action against the American e-commerce giant.

Brussels considers that Amazon "illegally abuses its dominant position in Germany and France, its two biggest markets in Europe".

How? 'Or' What ?

By leveraging data from independent merchants who sell their products through the Amazon Marketplace.

For example: a toy store sells you a fire truck and a doll through Amazon.

Amazon therefore knows who you are, what your tastes are, it grinds this data in its algorithm and then, when you come back to Amazon, it will directly offer you products that match your profile, bypassing the store that sells them. as well.

Brussels investigators went through 80 million transactions to come to this conclusion.

It should be noted that an investigation on the same subject is underway in the United States where Amazon also risks being prosecuted by the Department of Justice for abuse of a dominant position.

The paradox is that Amazon simultaneously offers a showcase for thousands of merchants.

This is what makes the file complex.

On the one hand, Amazon does indeed collect a lot of data on millions of customers.

But at the same time, you should know that 800,000 merchants sell their products through Amazon, it even represents 60% of the sales that are concluded by the platform.

Without Amazon, many businesses would therefore have fewer customers.

If you are a small artisanal jam producer in Prades in the Pyrénées Orientales, the city of the Prime Minister, you have almost zero chance of being listed with a retail giant.

But thanks to Amazon, you can hope to sell your jam to a Parisian or a Lille resident.

We must therefore not be caricatured.

Selling on Amazon, contrary to what some ill-informed politicians like Ségolène Royal claim, is not "selling the motherland" to Americans.

With this procedure for abuse of a dominant position, Brussels continues its momentum to stand up to the Gafa.

Politically, it's interesting.

Europe shows that it has not suddenly become naive because Joe Biden is going to move to the White House.

On the contrary.

Brussels has just confirmed trade sanctions against the United States in the Airbus-Boeing conflict.

We're going to the front lines on Amazon.

Apple and Google are still in the crosshairs.

If Biden was hoping to put Europe to sleep after Trump's trumpets, it's failed.

Naive Europe is over!