Germany: Announced investigation into Amazon for alleged abuse of dominance through opaque and inconsistent terms of business

On 29 November 2018, the German competition authority (Bundeskartellamt) initiated proceedings against Amazon for allegedly abusing its dominance in the online retail market by having opaque and inconsistent terms of business in place. The Bundeskartellamt had received numerous complaints about Amazon disadvantaging sellers. This was allegedly done through non-transparent account cancellations, extensive information rights, delayed or withheld payments, as well as disadvantageous jurisdiction clauses.