Amazon Being Investigated in UK for Practices Which May Give Customers 'Worse Deal'

Amazon is being investigated by Britain's antitrust watchdog over concerns that some of its practices in the UK may be anticompetitive and result in a worse deal for shoppers. From a report: The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will look at whether Amazon is distorting competition by giving an unfair advantage to its own retail business or sellers that use its services, compared with other third-party sellers in the Amazon UK Marketplace. The investigation will look at how the tech giant is using third-party seller data and how it decides the criteria for selling under the Prime label. The CMA will also scrutinise how Amazon selects the preferred choice in the "Buy Box", which is displayed prominently on Amazon's product pages and provides customers with one-click options to "Buy Now" or "Add to Basket" from a specific seller. Sarah Cardell, general counsel at the CMA, said: "Millions of people across the UK rely on Amazon's services for fast delivery of all types of products at the click of a button."

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