Amazon

Amazon, Digital, Digital economy, Digital markets, Digital Markets Act, Germany, National competition authorities (NCAs)

(Heinz & Zagrosek Partner mbB, Germany)/ /Leave a comment

On April 24, 2024, the German Federal Court of Justice (FCJ) rejected Amazon’s appeal against the decision of the Federal Cartel Office (FCO) of July 2022, designating Amazon as a gatekeeper under national competition law, Section 19a ARC.  The ruling clarifies important aspects of this provision designed to capture large digital companies (see translation of…

Algorithms, Amazon, Designation Decision, Digital, Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital markets, Digital Markets Act

(University Villanueva, Spain)/ /Leave a comment

The Digital Markets Act (DMA) became entirely applicable on 7 March 2024. By then, the gatekeepers issued their compliance reports documenting their technical solutions and implementation of the DMA’s provisions under Article 11 DMA as well as their reports on consumer profiling techniques as required under Article 15 DMA (see here). I will be covering the…

Amazon, App stores, Apple, Apps, Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital markets, Digital Markets Act, Europe, European Commission, Ex ante regulation, Facebook, Google

(University Villanueva, Spain)/ /Leave a comment

The Digital Markets Act (DMA) is now applicable. Following the 6-month interim period where gatekeepers had the opportunity to adapt their business models to the regulation, the DMA now requires them to prove their effective compliance with its provisions. To do that, on 7 March 2024, the six designated gatekeepers in September (see here) presented…

Advertising, Amazon, Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital Services Act, General Court of the European Union, Interim relief

(Institute of Law Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences)/ /Leave a comment

On September 27, 2023, the European General Court (GC or the Court), for the first time, issued a decision related to the new set of rules for the digital space introduced by the Digital Services Act (DSA) in Case Amazon v Commission, T-367/23 R. The Court granted Amazon interim measures concerning the application of the…

Amazon, Apple, Digital, Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital markets, Digital Markets Act, Digital Services Act, Ex ante regulation, Facebook, Google, Governance, Procedures, Proportionality

(University Villanueva, Spain)/ /Leave a comment

On the 31st of July, the European Commission issued for public consultation its (fourth) Template relating to the audited description of consumer profiling techniques pursuant to Article 15 of the DMA (the Template). The Template is inserted within the Commission’s wider transparency strategy to provide for a stream of implementing acts to secure the DMA’s…

Amazon, General Court of the European Union, Investigations, Request for information (RFI)

, (Mayer Brown)/ /Leave a comment

Introduction Like many competition authorities, the European Commission (“Commission”) has far-reaching powers to ask for huge amounts of information for its competition law investigations (see Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2003, Articles 18 to 21). These days it is no longer just hard copy documents being asked for, but significant amounts of electronic data in specified formats…

Abuse of dominance, Amazon, As Efficient Competitor, Commitments, Discrimination, European Commission

(University of Copenhagen)/ /Leave a comment

For unknown reasons, DG COMP persists in hiding the jewels when it comes to discrimination cases. This covers BdKEP/Deutsche Post AG from 2004, where DG COMP established (recital 93) how Article 102 TFEU covers three forms of discrimination, two exclusionary and one exploitive. As explained later, these have been referred to as horizontal-, vertical-, and…

Abuse of dominance, Amazon, Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital markets, Digital Markets Act, Economics, Europe, United States of America

(Intui Attorneys)/ /Leave a comment

Lawmakers and Amazon.com are involved in a constant cat-and-mouse game. Amazon.com is the big winner when consumers and businesses extensively use its digital ecosystem. As a reaction, lawmakers regulate big tech companies to protect end users and business users. This blog post argues that these regulations are not always effective and that their application is…

Amazon, India, Merger control, Merger notification, Mergers, Minority shareholding, Misleading information

(National Law University)/ /Leave a comment

Background Amazon.com Inc. recently approached the Supreme Court against the decision of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), where the Tribunal affirmed the ruling of the Competition Commission of India (CCI). The impugned decision of the Tribunal upheld the penalty order against Amazon.com, on the basis of non-disclosure and suppression of material information in…

Abuse of dominance, Amazon, Digital markets, Digital Markets Act, European Commission, European Union, National competition authorities (NCAs), Ne bis in idem

(University Villanueva, Spain)/ /Leave a comment

The final text of the DMA, after the Council’s final approval last 18th July, opened up, yet again, speculation on its enforcement. Although the Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton promptly confirmed that DG Connect would be the Directorate to apply and oversee the compliance of the DMA’s rules and obligations, several questions still…