A blog about competition, regulation and privacy in the digital era
The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill is now in the Report Stage in Parliament before it heads to the second chamber, the House of Lords. Trawling through the 87 pages of proposed amendments this week, I was tempted to reach for a hackneyed Winston Churchill quote: “Many forms of Government have been tried, and … Continue reading UK digital markets regime under attack, but still on course
Since Lina Khan – famously an Amazon critic – was appointed chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), a significant lawsuit against Amazon has been expected. The lawsuit was finally launched on Tuesday, brought jointly by the FTC and 17 state attorneys general. The FTC says that Amazon has raised its fees and commissions, cluttered … Continue reading The FTC’s landmark case against Amazon tackles the central issue of e-commerce market power
We have previously posted about Amazon’s acquisition of the robot vacuum cleaner (“RVC”) brand, iRobot, for $1.7 billion. The case has now been cleared by the UK Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) at Phase 1, and referred to Phase 2 for an in-depth investigation by the European Commission. We therefore have another case of diverging … Continue reading Amazon/iRobot: Does Amazon have an incentive to preference its own products?
More than four years after the Furman Report, the British Government has laid its Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill before Parliament. However, what is perhaps more remarkable than the delays is how closely the Bill sticks to the CMA’s original recommendations. One can always quibble over some of the drafting, but overall this is … Continue reading Fashionably late: The UK digital markets legislation starts its passage through Parliament
Regular readers of this blog may have noticed that we’ve been writing more about Amazon. We believe competition law has not yet fully grappled with its multifaceted business model, which has the Prime membership bundle of products at its core. Damien Geradin and I are therefore pleased to share our detailed paper on Amazon’s business … Continue reading Spinning Amazon’s Flywheel: How Amazon’s Business Model Harms Competition
Amazon’s revenues reached half a trillion dollars in 2022, having increased tenfold in a decade. There are few companies as fascinating and impressive as Amazon and arguably no other company occupies such a central position in the modern retail economy in the US and Europe. Its famous e-commerce platform represents more than half of e-commerce … Continue reading The Responsible Online Commerce Coalition (ROCC): Businesses team up to ensure a level playing field in e-commerce
The European Commission has accepted a set of legally-binding commitments offered by Amazon to settle two long-running antitrust investigations into whether Amazon has abused its dominant position in e-commerce. In doing so, the Commission will not issue a formal infringement decision and will not impose a fine. This is a significant outcome for these … Continue reading Amazon settles EU allegations regarding third-party sellers on Amazon Marketplace: some progress made but much remains to be done
It was reported last week that the US Federal Trade Commission has started investigating Amazon’s $1.7 billion acquisition of iRobot, the maker of Roomba smart vacuum cleaners. It seems to us that the UK and EU authorities will also have jurisdiction to investigate. Why should anyone (apart from iRobot’s shareholders) care about a large retailer … Continue reading Amazon/iRobot: The flywheel spins once more
Some days you just can’t get a break. Amazon was the recipient of not one but two pieces of bad news yesterday, with the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announcing that it has launched an investigation under the Competition Act 1998 into possible abuses of dominance by Amazon, and the German Federal Cartel Office … Continue reading UK and Germany double up on Amazon
The European Commission recently published its final report into the Internet of Things, with Executive Vice-President Vestager stating: “The consumer Internet of Things sector is increasingly becoming part of our everyday life … This is a market with high barriers to entry, few vertically integrated players and concerns about access to data, interoperability or exclusivity … Continue reading The fast growing concentration of the connected TV OS market: Getting Ahead of Another Big Tech Duopoly, Before It’s Too Late