The European Commission said the deal would shelve antitrust investigations into how Amazon treats third-party sellers for now. Amazon will have to honor commitments for five to seven years, or it could face hefty fines.
The deal includes several preliminary commitments Amazon made in July. Among other things, Amazon will rank all sellers equally in the Checkout options so that customers can purchase the product quickly. Amazon says a second Buy recommendation will be displayed if another seller offers the product at a significantly different price and/or delivery time.
Third-party sellers in the EU will also now be able to offer their products through Prime without having to use Amazon’s delivery or logistics services. In addition, Amazon will not be able to use non-public data about third-party vendors to benefit its own business, including to create counterfeit versions of logistics or popular products.
Agreement between Amazon and EU completed
The final agreement also includes some additional commitments, such as making it easier for third-party sellers to contact Amazon customers directly so they can offer delivery services similar to those offered by Amazon.
The agreement will be valid for five years. Prime and second Buy options commitments will last seven years. The agreement will apply to the entire European Economic Area except Italy. However, Italy will be out of the deal, as the country’s own competition agency has fined Amazon.
If EU regulators find that Amazon is not complying with the terms of the agreement, the Commission can fine the company up to 10% of its global annual revenue without having to find that antitrust rules have been violated. According to Amazon’s 2021 revenue, this penalty is an amount that can reach $ 47 billion. Alternatively, EC may impose a separate penalty to Amazon of 5% of its daily turnover for each day of non-compliance with the terms of the agreement.