EU's Vestager set ‘to start Amazon competition probe’ as Ursula von der Leyen talks about US tech firms paying tax
Amazon faces a full-blown EU probe as the region’s competition chief Margrethe Vestager prepares for a summer finale to her five-year crackdown on US technology giants.
The Dane, who heads the EU’s competition division, is poised to open a formal investigation into Amazon within days, according to two people familiar with the case, who asked not to be named because the process isn’t public.
Vestager has hinted for months that she wanted to escalate a preliminary inquiry into how Amazon may be unfairly using sales data to undercut smaller shops on its Marketplace platform. By ramping up the probe, officials can start to build a case that could lead to fines or an order to change the way the Seattle-based company operates.
“If powerful platforms are found to use data they amass to get an edge over their competitors, both consumers and the market bear the cost”, said Johannes Kleis of Beuc, the European consumer organisation in Brussels.
The probe comes as Qualcomm could be hit with a second hefty EU penalty by next week. The US chipmaker was fined last year for thwarting rival suppliers to Apple and has been the subject of on-and-off competition scrutiny since 2005.
Meanwhile, Germany’s Ursula von der Leyen, seeking to become the first female head of the European Commission, has said she wants US tech giants to pay “fair taxes” in the EU, which could lead to further strain ties between the EU and the US.
Vestager has already slapped Google with record fines and ordered Apple to repay €13bn plus interest in back taxes, to Ireland. In a legal case to the European court that may last for a decade, the Irish Government is appealing the EU decision on Apple and the money will be held in an account until then.
By taking on Amazon’s chief executive Jeff Bezos, Vestager is keeping up the pressure on big tech right to the very end of her mandate, due to expire in October. While it will be the first time the EU has directly targeted Amazon’s online retail business model, it’s the third time the company has been probed by the regulator, following tax and e-book investigations.
Although Google has been fined once a year for the past three years, racking up €8.2bn in penalties, the Alphabet unit still faces early-stage inquiries into local business and jobs searches.
