Abuse of power in the corona crisis ?: Cartel office reviews Amazon's practices

The flood of online orders drives Amazon to record results in the Corona crisis. The US group is said to have used questionable practices on its sales platform, German dealers claim. Now the Federal Cartel Office is intervening.

The Federal Cartel Office is investigating the allegation that the online retailer Amazon is abusing its dominant market position during the corona pandemic. "We are currently investigating whether and how Amazon influences retailers' pricing on the marketplace," said President Andreas Mundt of the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung". The reason are complaints that Amazon blocked retailers on its sales platform during the first few months of the pandemic because of allegedly excessive prices. "Amazon must not be a price controller. That also applies now," said Mundt.

Amazon 3,148.02

As early as 2013, the cartel watchdogs ensured that the US group Amazon gave up its so-called price parity clause. Until then, it had been the case that third-party retailers were not allowed to sell a product cheaper via other online sales channels than on the Amazon Marketplace itself.

Regarding the status of the investigation, Mundt said: "There were initial requests for information to which Amazon has now responded." This will now be evaluated. The possible abuse of a dominant position is "of course the approach in such investigations". Amazon is an indispensable platform for many retailers. "On the other hand, we have not yet formally established market dominance," said Mundt.

Record result in corona crisis

When asked by Reuters, an Amazon spokesman said the Amazon sales partners set their own product prices in the Amazon store. "Our systems are designed in such a way that they take measures against price gouging." If sales partners have any concerns, they are encouraged to contact support.

Germany is the second largest market for Amazon after the USA. Worldwide, the online giant profited in the first few months of the wave of infections from the fact that retailers in numerous countries had to close their shops due to official requirements or were only allowed to allow customers to enter the branches to a limited extent. The resulting flood of online orders brought Amazon the highest quarterly profit in its 26-year history. At the end of July, the company announced that it doubled its profit from the previous year to 5.2 billion dollars with a jump in sales of 40 percent to 88.9 billion dollars in the second quarter.

.