A settlement was reached in two antitrust cases filed by the European Commission against Amazon, as per a press release issued on December 20, 2022. The commitments offered by Amazon will be made legally binding under the European Union’s (EU) antitrust rules, the release added. The commitments seek to address competition concerns raised by the European Commission over Amazon's use of “non-public marketplace seller data” and a possible bias in providing access to certain sellers to its Buy Box and Prime programmes. Why it matters: It is a significant development as it can set a precedent for countries which have opened an antitrust investigation against Amazon. Many countries, including India, have alleged that Amazon monopolises the market and favour certain sellers on its platform. The commitments offered by the e-commerce giant, reveal the extent to which the company is willing to go in order to settle antitrust concerns levelled against it. It may come as a relief to Amazon as it would have to pay billions of dollars in fines if it had been penalised following the conclusions of the EU's investigation. What are the commitments: The commission said that it conducted a market test from July 14, 2022, to September 9, 2022, to verify whether its commitments would remove its competition concerns. The commission then asked the company to make a few amendments to its commitments which were found to be satisfactory by the commission. The company, led by Jeff Bezos, had offered to do the following initially— Addressing…
