What's the news? UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on July 5 launched an investigation into e-commerce platform Amazon over concerns that its practices might "be anti-competitive and could result in a worse deal for customers." Why does this matter? CMA joins regulators from around the world—including the European Commission, Competition Commission of India, and the US's Federal Trade Commission—in probing Amazon. These regulators are looking at many of the same anticompetitive practices such as self-preferencing, misuse of customer data, exclusivity deals, etc. This indicates some level of global consensus in bringing the e-commerce behemoth in line. The regulatory pressure might also induce Amazon to make some significant changes to its workings. In India, for example, Amazon's top seller, Cloudtail, which has been at the centre of many allegations, recently stopped selling on the platform due to regulatory pressure, among other reasons. "Millions of people across the UK rely on Amazon’s services for fast delivery of all types of products at the click of a button. This is an important area so it’s right that we carefully investigate whether Amazon is using third-party data to give an unfair boost to its own retail business and whether it favours sellers who use its logistics and delivery services – both of which could weaken competition. Thousands of UK businesses use Amazon to sell their products and it is important they are able to operate in a competitive market. Any loss of competition is a loss to consumers and could lead to them paying more for products,…
