Amazon.com faces UK probe over marketplace practices

UK's antitrust watchdog is investigating Amazon.com on whether the US tech giant was hurting competition by giving its own sellers an unfair advantage over third-party sellers on the marketplace.

Britain's Competition and Markets Authority said it opened an investigation on Tuesday (Jul 5) on concerns Amazon's practices affecting sellers on its domestic marketplace may be anti-competitive and could result in a worse deal for customers.

The investigation follows a current European Commission probe looking at similar concerns but which does not cover issues affecting the UK following Brexit.

The British regulator said its investigation would focus on 3 main areas, including how the Seattle-based company collects and uses third-party seller data and how it sets the eligibility criteria for selling under the Prime label.

Amazon.com did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment outside regular business hours. REUTERS