Amazon: The Blueprint for Compliance With the Digital Markets Act

Article by Zahra Rahman

Amazon has addressed major concerns from EU antitrust regulators by agreeing to treat ‘all sellers equally and make rival products more visible on Amazon’s buybox’. This agreement with the EU has marked the end of two long-running probes into the e-commerce group to increase the accessibility and visibility of their rivals’ products on their marketplace.

The DMA, which came into force in November 2022, was proposed by the European Commission to ‘govern the activities of online gatekeepers and regulate how businesses access gatekeeper platforms.’ Businesses will have to oblige with the legislation if they have a significant impact on the EU’s internal market or offer a core platform service that connects business users to reach end users.

Under the new compliance legislation, instead of sellers solely being offered Amazon’s own Prime services for shipping out goods to buyers, they will be provided with alternative couriers with competitive prices and delivery time frames. This means that Amazon will avoid the formal charges and potential fines of up to 10% of their global revenues and pave the way for other global tech giants to follow suit with the EU’s new digital legislation.

Amazon’s commitment to complying with the new DMA, established to target Big Tech companies specifically by subjecting them to new legal regulations, is a blueprint for other large companies to follow suit. This will discourage major tech companies from abusing their market monopoly and ensuring fair competition for smaller and new players to enter the market.

Amazon will now have to give equal treatment to their data whilst abstaining from ‘self-preferential treatment’ – like when they may advertise their own Prime products and services above rivals on their services.

Amazon’s trajectory is posed against an evolving landscape in the tech sector, especially as the EU’s antitrust watchdog has started to raise complaints against Meta over concerns that Facebook’s Marketplace platform has a substantial distribution advantage that competitors cannot match.