In 2021, Amazon's market share increased to 55 percent. While Zalando, Otto Kaufland and Co. together only have ten percent, the giant's market share has increased further during the corona pandemic. The remaining 35 percent is shared by hundreds of thousands of online shops.
How Amazon controls prices
Plusminus did research and found that retailers change their prices on average more than 30 times a day in the fight for the Buy Box. There is initially no disadvantage for the customer, as the cheapest products often receive the Buy Box.
However, Amazon itself is also a dealer on the Amazon Marketplace and sells products. Retailers with whom Plusminus was able to speak doubt that the same rules apply to Amazon as a retailer as to other retailers. An exclusive price analysis that was created for SWR research shows that customers are sometimes shown more expensive products from Amazon, even though there would have been a cheaper provider. Amazon denies any preference and points out that other criteria play a role in addition to price and delivery speed.
How are the authorities reacting?
Since 2020, the EU Commission in Brussels has been examining, among other things, whether the online giant Amazon disadvantages other retailers on its platform. Antitrust experts say that private companies should not be allowed to determine how competition works and which demand is served by which provider. There have also already been complaints from retailers that Amazon is misusing data and using it for its own benefit.
The Federal Cartel Office wants to decide in a few weeks whether a company is of “outstanding cross-market importance for competition”.
What is the Digital Market Act?
A new EU law aims to limit the power of Amazon, Google, Facebook and Apple. It should be clearly defined there what they are allowed to do and what they are not allowed to do in the future. The law comes into force at the end of 2022. After a waiting period of two years, affected companies must expect consequences. (We reported HERE )
Source: SWR market check
Also read: Amazon muzzles US employees
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