Rzeczpospolita daily reported that UOKiK (Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection) is set to issue an important decision concerning a complaint against the online platform Allegro. Some sellers who are Allegro users complained to UOKiK that Allegro discriminated against smaller or independent sellers.
Allegro is an e-commerce and auctioning on-line platform, with headquarters in Poznan, Poland. According to Allegro, it has over 20 million registered users, and clears over 870 thousand transactions daily. The service has been sold in 2016 for $ 3.5 billion.
“To find that Allegro favors its own offer, it’s enough to look at the main page of the portal where a third of the products comes from the Allegro store”, said Krzysztof Krawczyk, head of Dreamcommerce, a provider of e-commerce software. “For several months the service has been diverting attention from smaller sellers towards its own store and the Brand Zone, i.e. big brands.” (Source: http://www.rp.pl/Handel/310089929-UOKiK-uderzy-w-Allegro.html)
Allegro denies the charges.
In July, the Competition Authority conducted a search on Allegro premises. (Source: https://uokik.gov.pl/news.php?news_id=13332).
“One should expect the decision that will convey an important message to the market and to the millions of Allegro users.” said Marek Niechciał, President of UOKIK, to Rzeczpospolita in October. “We have received signals that suggested there might be discrimination of sellers. We receive additional information from the market also from businesses that learnt about the proceedings.” (Source: http://www.rp.pl/Handel/310089929-UOKiK-uderzy-w-Allegro.html)
The Competition Authority does not comment on the timeframe for the decision.
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