EU finding it hard to make Amazon antitrust charges stick

Stefan Mileschin · 15th March 2021, 10:40

Even after working on it for two years

Regulators in Brussels are struggling to gather enough evidence to bring antitrust charges against Amazon, despite working on the landmark case for nearly two years.

In July 2019, EU regulators accused the online retailer of manipulating its algorithm to boost its own products "artificially" over its rivals. As a result, they alleged, users often end up buying lower-quality products at a higher price.

But according to the Financial Times, EU officials are struggling to understand how Amazon's algorithm works, despite sending a series of detailed questions to the company about the criteria used to boost a product's visibility.

These people added that officials are also unlikely to be able to view the online retailer's proprietary code directly to build their case, owing to legal barriers around trade secrets. Antitrust investigators frequently face hurdles in navigating the "black boxes" of technology companies' code.

https://fudzilla.com/news/52510-eu-f...-charges-stick

15th March 2021, 10:40	#1
Stefan Mileschin [M] Reviewer Join Date: May 2010 Location: Romania Posts: 148,738	EU finding it hard to make Amazon antitrust charges stick Even after working on it for two years Regulators in Brussels are struggling to gather enough evidence to bring antitrust charges against Amazon, despite working on the landmark case for nearly two years. In July 2019, EU regulators accused the online retailer of manipulating its algorithm to boost its own products "artificially" over its rivals. As a result, they alleged, users often end up buying lower-quality products at a higher price. But according to the Financial Times, EU officials are struggling to understand how Amazon's algorithm works, despite sending a series of detailed questions to the company about the criteria used to boost a product's visibility. These people added that officials are also unlikely to be able to view the online retailer's proprietary code directly to build their case, owing to legal barriers around trade secrets. Antitrust investigators frequently face hurdles in navigating the "black boxes" of technology companies' code. https://fudzilla.com/news/52510-eu-f...-charges-stick

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