Austrian retailers have filed a complaint against Amazon with their national competition authority over the US e-commerce giant’s dual role as a retailer and a marketplace, reports Reuters. The European Commission and Germany’s antitrust authority are also looking into Amazon’s role in the market.
A spokeswoman of the Austrian Federal Competition Authority (BWB) confirmed they have received a complaint by the Austrian Retail Association and are examining it. The main grounds for the complaint laid out by Austria’s biggest retailers’ association is Amazon’s role as both a retailer in its own right and as a marketplace where other retailers’ products are sold.
Austrian newspaper Der Standard reported that it had documents showing that the BWB would open an investigation into Amazon. The spokeswoman, however, said that at this stage the BWB was only examining the complaint.
According to the association, Amazon can in theory see the prices of the listed retailers on its platform, undercut their prices and in the long run attract all their business. They add that 93 percent of all Austrian online shoppers have made at least once purchase on Amazon.
