Australian Watchdog Looks At EU Amazon Case Closely

Amazon is offering to halt the online selling and marketing practices in Europe that regulators allege are anti-competitive, hoping to bring an end to a two-year investigation and avoid a massive fine.

But as the tech and eCommerce giant offered a legal commitment in Europe, it does not yet face the same pressure in Australia, where Amazon’s foothold doesn’t meet the market dominance threshold and rules targeting the practice are years away.

Australian regulators are still concerned, however, because of the rapid growth of Amazon’s retail business in Australia and are “closely following” the European case as new rules for digital platforms loom.

Amazon Australia declined to say if the European offer – which includes a legal commitment to not use other sellers’ data for its own competitive retail business – would be applied locally.

But the local arm insisted it does not advantage its own products over Australian third-party sellers it competes with when generating $1.3 billion in Australian sales annually.

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