“The announced investigation into Amazon's alleged abuse of a
dominant market position must be conducted quickly to make sure
that it ends its abusive behaviour as quickly as possible“, said
Markus Ferber MEP, EPP Group Spokesman in the European Parliament's
Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee.
“We must draw the right lessons from the previous investigation
into Google, which dragged on too long and thus inflicted
irreparable damage to the market“, Ferber added.
His comments follow today's announcement by the European
Commission that Amazon - in the Commission’s view - breached EU
antitrust rules by distorting competition in the online retail
market and opened a second formal investigation into possible
abuse to the benefit of Amazon's own retail business, which
competes with third party sellers.
“Platforms like Amazon are the gatekeepers of the digital economy
and yield considerable power. Competition authorities have to be
vigilant to make sure that there is fair competition on digital
platforms, particularly when a platform operator is in direct
competition with some of its users. This set-up is ripe for abuse
and the Commission is right to step in forcefully when there is
even the slightest hint of abuse of a dominant market position“,
Ferber concluded.
NOTE TO EDITORS
The EPP Group is the largest political group in the European
Parliament with 187 Members from all EU Member States
