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German Watchdog Starts Proceedings Against Amazon

By  |  May 18, 2021

Germany’s antitrust watchdog announced on Tuesday, May 18, it has launched a new investigation into whether US ecommerce giant Amazon is exploiting its market dominance, reported Reuters.

“In a first step, we are looking at whether Amazon is of outstanding, cross-market importance for competition,” the Federal Cartel Office announced in a statement.

Should it find that such a marketing position exists, new rules for digital companies would allow it to prohibit any anti-competitive behavior at an earlier stage, the watchdog stated.

Changes to Germany’s antitrust laws for digital corporations, which came into effect earlier this year, give the Cartel Office more power in identifying and prohibiting some companies’ dominant positions.

The Bonn-based authority has already initiated proceedings against Amazon’s price control mechanisms and relationships with third-party traders selling on its site.

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