{"id":738697,"date":"2013-02-20T09:28:06","date_gmt":"2013-02-20T14:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gigaom.com\/?p=612131"},"modified":"2013-02-20T09:28:06","modified_gmt":"2013-02-20T14:28:06","slug":"amazons-price-parity-clause-attracts-attention-of-german-antitrust-regulator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/738697","title":{"rendered":"Amazon\u2019s \u2018price parity\u2019 clause attracts attention of German antitrust regulator"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amazon isn’t having much luck in Germany at the moment. Just one week ago, it found itself accused of employing a security company with neo-fascist links<\/a> at its distribution centers there (it sacked the company in question quite quickly) and now it’s attracted the attention of the country’s antitrust authorities.<\/p>

The Bundeskartellamt (Federal Cartel Office) is looking into complaints about the “price parity clause” that Amazon imposes on its third-party merchants. The clause forbids the merchants from selling goods they sell on Amazon cheaper elsewhere online, including on eBay and through their own sites.<\/p>

“Amazon’s price parity clause, under which sellers are deprived of their freedom to sell a product offered through Amazon cheaper on another internet sales channel, could violate the general ban on cartels,” Bundeskartellamt president Andreas Mundt said in a statement.<\/p>

“This applies in particular if the restriction of the sellers’ freedom to determine prices also restricts competition between the different internet marketplaces. Such a restraint of competition seems likely as, under normal circumstances, sellers have an interest in offering their products on several internet marketplaces.”<\/p>

The authorities have identified two particular problems with this setup: first, that it makes it very hard for new marketplaces to challenge Amazon, and second, that Amazon can therefore charge higher seller fees than necessary, hurting the consumer.<\/p>

To find out more, the Bundeskartellamt is now surveying 2,400 third-party Amazon merchants. If this confirms what it suspects, it will very likely force Amazon to remove the price parity clause from its terms in Germany.<\/p>

This is hardly the first time that people have complained about Amazon’s price parity clause<\/a>, which was introduced a few years ago. In the UK, the Office of Fair Trading said in 2011 that it was looking into complaints<\/a> about the clause as applied to e-books, but it didn’t open a formal investigation. Apple’s EU e-book antitrust inquiry also had to do with a similar clause, which the European Commission forced it to scrap<\/a>.<\/p>

We have asked Amazon for comment, and will add it in if and when it arrives.<\/p>
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