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The Amazon logistics center in Boves, France, May 13, 2019. REUTERS / Pascal Rossignol / File Photo

Amazon had already been in the sights of the EU and on Wednesday 17 July the European Commission launched a formal investigation into the online sales platform that it suspected of practices contrary to the rules of competition. What is problematic for Margrethe Vestager, the competition commissioner, is not the products sold by Amazon or its commercial practices, but its "dual role", since Amazon is also a marketplace, Amazon Marketplace. The Commission will examine in detail how Amazon uses data from other merchants on its platform. Amazon would use their customers' data to refine their own business strategy.

With our correspondent in Brussels, Pierre Benazet

The European Commission is opening a formal investigation this Wednesday, but it had already begun in September to look into how Amazon manages the customer data of vendors it hosts. It must therefore be believed that the Commission found sufficient evidence to confirm its suspicions of anti-competitive behavior.

When buying from Amazon, in fact, half of the products are sold by third-party merchants. These are SMEs housed on the platform and can thus benefit from a considerable exposure area. In return, these sellers obviously pay a fee to Amazon.

But the question now is what is the actual use of these data . Whether they serve only to draw market trends or the interests of buyers, or if Amazon seeks to capture the customers of merchants hosted on its platform.

Amazon has already passed once under the decks of decisions of Margrethe Vestager since the Commission has summoned in 2017 the Luxembourg tax authorities to claim 282 million euros, to compensate for undue tax benefits.

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