E-commerce leader Amazon and Facebook owner Meta have committed to protecting consumers on their retail platforms, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) – an independent arm of the UK Government – has confirmed.
Following separate investigations, the two companies have accepted “sets of commitments”, which the regulator says will allow fair competition, benefitting sellers on their respective marketplaces.
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US-based Amazon has pledged to provide a level-playing field to third-party Marketplace sellers and UK customers with access to the best deals.
The e-commerce retailer will be barred from using Marketplace data it obtains from third-party sellers for its competitive advantage. It must also allow sellers to negotiate their delivery rates directly with independent providers.
Similarly, Meta has committed to avoiding the exploitation of advertising customers’ data through its Facebook Marketplace platform.
Competitors of Facebook Marketplace that advertise on Meta Platforms will now have the option to protect their data from being used to improve the retail platform.
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By GlobalDataThe company also pledged to restrict how it uses advertising data when developing its products, the CMA said.
CMA antitrust enforcement senior director Ann Pope stated: “We have accepted Amazon’s commitments as they help thousands of independent UK sellers to compete on a level playing field against Amazon’s own retail arm. This should also mean customers get access to the best product offers.
“The commitments secured from Meta mean the firm cannot exploit advertising customers’ data to give itself an unfair advantage – and as such distort competition.
“Having assessed the commitments and the feedback received, including from sellers, advertisers and customers, we believe both sets of commitments address the specific competition concerns we had here in the UK.”
In July 2022, the CMA launched an investigation into Amazon for allegedly abusing its power as one of the leaders in the UK online retailer platform.
The regulator launched an investigation against Facebook Marketplace for similar cases in June 2021.
