EU is ready to explore Amazon's use of merchant data on its website

Amazon's business model is undergoing a new review, with the EU to launch a formal investigation into how the retail giant is using the data from others merchants who sell products on its websites, according to two people close to the move.

This milestone marks the latest investigation into an American giant by EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager, and comes just weeks after US President Donald Trump accused her of hating the United States.

Since last year, Brussels has conducted a preliminary survey of Amazon's business practices, exploring the dual role of the company as a retailer and among a multitude of rival third-party merchants – vendors who use Amazon as a platform for market their products.

More than half of all items sold through Amazon in 2017 came from third-party merchants.

The commission sent questionnaires to vendors as part of the preliminary information gathering process, and has now decided to follow up with a formal investigation, said people familiar with the investigation. Brussels can announce the process as of Wednesday.

"The question here is about the data," Ms. Vestager said last year. She added that Brussels wanted to determine how much Amazon was using the information provided by smaller merchants to try to identify "what is the new big deal".

A formal survey will allow regulators to express their main concerns. This could eventually lead to fines or force Amazon to change its business practices.

Amazon declined to comment, but in the past, the company has emphasized how it operates in large markets with multiple competitors and that online sales represent only a small fraction of the retail market.

The European Commission also declined to comment.

The action against Amazon is nearing the end of Ms Vestager's five-year term as Commissioner of Competition, during which time she has built an international reputation by launching antitrust and state aid investigations. against the titans of the digital economy.

"This is an important gesture and a statement against the big giants of technology," said Andrea Collart, a partner in the competition at Avisa Partners. "The feeling is that Amazon is so present on so many markets that it is too big to be regulated."

"The application of competition can be the sling used by David to defeat Goliath," he added.

The official investigation on Amazon follows a series of European competition proceedings against US tech giants, including a € 4.3 billion fine imposed on Google in July for alleged misuse of position dominant in mobile operating systems and a binding decision Apple to pay 13 billion euros taxes to the Irish government.