Amazon Offers To Limit Use of Merchant Data in Bid To Settle EU Antitrust Probe

Amazon has offered to limit its use of marketplace seller data and make changes to 'Buy Box' rankings in a bid to settle antitrust concerns in the European Union, the Commission confirmed today. From a report: It has also offered to revise how sellers can quality for inclusion to Prime; and allow them to choose their own delivery firm and negotiate terms directly with the carrier, as well as committing not to use any data obtained via Prime about the terms and performance of third party carriers for its own competing logistics services. In recent weeks, reports by Reuters and the FT had suggested Amazon would offer to share more data with rivals and give buyers a wider choice of products in order to settle the EU's action.

They should never have used it to begin with

[Ed Tice]

You can't (or at least shouldn't) avoid penalties for illegal behavior by promising to stop that behavior. They should be *required* to stop doing that, pay damages to harmed merchants, and pay significant fines.

Amazon insisted publicly for years that they weren't engaging in this practice when in fact they were doing so rampantly. They knew it was unethical and probably illegal (hence the public statements) and now they got caught.

This would qualify as no penalty at all and is ludicrous (but sadly they might get away with it)

Re:

[bill_mcgonigle]

Nobody will go to prison and they will do it* again.

Corporate fines and settlements are just theatre so you know "they're doing something" so you don't have to act against malicious entities.

Multinationals carry on getting bigger and more sociopathic.

* or something that rhymes with 'it'

Re:

[Ed Tice]

Sadly that's my prediction as well

Re:

[smooth wombat]

Corporate fines and settlements are just theatre

A fine or settlement is the same as saying legal for a price.

Re:

[splutty]

I doubt the EU will accept this as the Mea Culpa it's supposed to be.

The investigation will continue, Amazon might or might not implement these 'features', but in the end, if Amazon were a human, it'd be an abusive lying sack of shit.

Re:

[serviscope_minor]

Yeah like what the actual fuck.

Amazon breaks the law, offers to stop.

Why yes officer, I will stop robbing this shop. No, no I'll be keeping the TV. Going forwards I'll stop robbing it, and I'll pledge to put some procedures in place to make future robbings from me less likely. Also I'll offer the shop the opportunity to request that I pay.

Re:

[Ed Tice]

That's pretty much it.

Split Amazon up

[TheNameOfNick]

Nobody should operate a marketplace and compete in that marketplace.

Re:

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Stop that pinko commie talk right now! Your questioning the God-given right of monopolies to remain monopolies and stiffle competition in our ideal neo-liberal world is the beginning of a very slippery slope!

If they offer a compromise

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

they know what they're doing is wrong and they're sure to lose. Otherwise they'd fight it in court to the bitter end, seeing as though they have essentially unlimited legal resources.

So all it took the EU was to lean on em a bit to get that compromise. This raises the rhetorical question: what is Uncle Sam waiting for to do the same?

The question of course is rhetorical because the US powers that be don't work in the best interest of their constituents but in that of the corporations who lobbied the hardest, unlike their European counterparts.

Re:

[HiThere]

I'm not sure that's fair. It might be, the EU has come down hard on some local corporations, but it could also be "support the home team". Or perhaps some large corporations are just more blatantly illegal.