United Kingdom: Announced investigation into Amazon regarding anti-competitive practices

On 5 July 2022, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched an investigation into Amazon for potentially anti-competitive practices affecting sellers in its marketplace, which may worsen conditions for consumers. The investigation will cover whether Amazon has a dominant position in the UK and is abusing its market power, as well as distorting competition by disadvantaging third-party sellers on the Amazon UK Marketplace. Specifically, the CMA will examine if Amazon is using non-public data to give itself an unfair advantage. CMA is also investigating the criteria and requirements to be featured on Amazon's "Buy Box", which is displayed prominently on Amazon's webpage. The investigation follows a recent European Commission probe.