Amazon’s proposal to halt some online sales and marketing practices to head off big antitrust fines from European Union regulators is inadequate and “full of loopholes,” a group of 11 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) argue in a filing to the European Commission.
The organizations submitted the filing Thursday (Sept. 8) in response to a request for public comment. The signers consist of 11 organizations, including lobbying watchdogs, monopoly opponents and pro-union advocates.
“We, the undersigned, believe that Amazon’s dominant ‘gatekeeper’ position in e-commerce and other areas poses serious threats to our economies and societies … We are delighted that the European Commission takes these threats seriously, and that it has launched this particular investigation and call for feedback,” the response states.
“Amazon’s core business model clearly involves creating, then exploiting, basic conflicts of interest,” the statement continues. “Its new proposed commitments seem designed to ensure that these profitable conflicts ultimately remain intact. We see this offer as a threat to consumers, businesses and workers. It will not stop Amazon from abusing its dominance.”
The signatories to the response are: Austrian Federal Chamber of Labour, Balanced Economy Project, Digitale Gesellschaft, European Public Services Union, Foxglove; Goliathwatch, FairVote UK, LobbyControl, Simply Secure, Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations, UNI Europa and Weltwirtschaft, Ökologie & Entwicklung.
An Amazon spokesman told PYMNTS Monday (Sept. 12) that the company previously said of the EU regulatory action: “While we have serious concerns about the Digital Markets Act unfairly targeting Amazon and a few other U.S. companies and disagree with several conclusions the European Commission made, we have engaged constructively with the commission to address their concerns and preserve our ability to serve European customers and the more than 185,000 European small- and medium-sized businesses selling through our stores. No company cares more about small businesses or has done more to support them over the past two decades than Amazon.”
Reuters reported that the EU gave organizations until Friday (Sept. 9) to respond to the matter.
According to Reuters, Amazon has pledged to give sellers parity when it ranks items in response to potential buyers’ queries, and also stated it would give sellers offering superior deals space in search results near items from sellers that paid for placement.
Amazon’s headaches in Europe come as the company has scaled back U.S. expansion plans amid slowing growth in eCommerce.
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