Agenda

BUNDESKARTELLAMT – DETERMINATION OF AMAZON AS AN UNDERTAKING THAT PARAMOUNT SIGNIFICANCE FOR COMPETITION ACROSS MARKETS AND SPECIAL ABUSE CONTROL FOR FIVE YEARS

24/08/2022

Bundeskartellamt announced that it has determined the Amazon.com, Inc., is an undertaking of paramount significance for competition across markets under the Section 19a of the German Competition Act (“GWB”). In this context, Amazon and its subsidiaries will be subject to extended abuse control pursuant.

Section 19a of the GWB, which entered into force in 2021, enables the Bundeskartellamt to prohibit undertakings which are of paramount significance for competition across markets from engaging in anti-competitive practices. The reasons for this decision of the Bundeskartellamt are as follows:

  • Amazon’s revenue in Germany (Approx. 32 billion Euros) and worldwide (approx. 400 billion Euros).
  • Markets where Amazon operates such as trading platform, digital content, logistics, advertising and payment processing, cloud computing services, Web services.
  • Amazon’s key strategic position in the German online retail sector by virtue of its trading platform amazon.de.
  • Amazon’s over %70 market share in marketplace services for commercial sellers in Germany which in the view of the Bundeskartellamt amounts to a dominant position.
  • The enormous significance of Amazon’s trading platform increases even further by its own retail activities.
  • Amazon’s highly integrated digital ecosystem, with the combination its wide business portfolio and Amazon Prime’s important role in this respect, on offering end consumers a wide variety of services besides free shipping.
  • Globally, more than 200 million registered users paid Prime subscription Amazon have.
  • Amazon's possession to considerable resources such as access to competitively relevant data and a high degree of financial power.

As a result, due to the above mentioned reasons, Amazon is subject to special abuse control in Germany by the Bundeskartellamt as set out in Section 19a(2) GWB for five years.

(Bundeskartellamt – 06.07.2022)

 

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