Amazon fined nearly $1.3 billion for favoring FBA sellers

Amazon was fined 1.13 billion euros ($1.28 billion) by Italy's antitrust regulator on Thursday for using its dominant position to favor third-party sellers on its e-commerce platform Amazon.it that use its Fulfillment by Amazon logistics service.

The regulator said that after investigation, it was found that Amazon favors sellers in its Italian market who use Amazon warehouses and FBA logistics and distribution services. This is mainly manifested in that when consumers choose to buy, FBA sellers' products will be automatically set as the "default option" by the system, and the probability of having a golden shopping cart for consumers to "buy with one click" is much higher than that of other sellers.

Amazon said it "strongly opposes " the fine and plans to appeal. A spokesperson for the platform said, "We continue to invest in supporting the development of the 18,000 Italian small and medium-sized enterprises that sell on Amazon, and we also provide sellers with a variety of sales tools, including FBM sellers . "

It is understood that in addition to the fine, the regulator also requires Amazon to provide "fair and non-discriminatory standards" for its third-party sellers' products and will set up a regulator for this purpose.

According to Amazon's third-party sellers, whether in the European or North American market, the chances of Amazon's FBM sellers getting the gold shopping cart are indeed lower than those of FBA sellers. However, Amazon officials said that the Amazon platform will determine whether a product can get the gold shopping cart by weighing product prices, order delivery conditions, seller ratings, etc.

Regarding this heavy fine, Amazon third-party sellers at home and abroad also have different views. Some sellers believe that the fine incurred by the Amazon platform may be obtained from third-party sellers in another way, while some sellers said that it remains to be seen whether the "fair and non-discriminatory standards" required by regulators for platforms to provide products for third-party sellers will be implemented.

Since the beginning of this year, Amazon platform rules have emerged one after another, and the sales behavior of third-party sellers on the platform has become increasingly restricted. It is hoped that after regulatory investigations by third-party organizations, the Amazon platform can provide its third-party sellers with a fair, just and non-discriminatory market competition environment.

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FBA Sellers

FBM Sellers