The French finance ministry said on Monday it has brought a
court case against Amazon for abuse of its dominant position on
marketplace, the retail giant's third-party vendor platform.
The
ministry said there is “a significant imbalance” in business relations
between Amazon and vendors selling products on its platform, saying it
was seeking a fine against Amazon of around 10 million euros ($11.8
million).
The case follows a two-year investigation into
third-party vendor platforms, including Amazon's, the ministry said, and
will be heard by the Paris commercial court.
“We found
that there is a significant imbalance in the clauses that Amazon forces
on the companies that sell on its marketplace, a practice that goes
against the business law,” Loic Tanguy, cabinet chief at the ministry's
competition, consumer and anti-fraud unit, told AFP.
The
unit found several clauses it believes to be illegal in agreements with
third-party vendors on Amazon's French marketplace platform which is
consulted by some 3.6 million people daily.
According to
Le Parisien daily, which first reported the case, Amazon has the power
to modify contracts at a moment's notice, demand shorter delivery times
or block deliveries while demanding additional corporate information
from vendors.
Other platforms, including Cdiscount and
Rue du Commerce, had already agreed to bring their rules into line with
the ministry's requirements, Tanguy said.
But for Amazon “we believe that the practices were more unfair” than at other sites, prompting the legal action, he said.
Tanguy
said it was the ministry's job to ensure that “relations between the
various actors are balanced, so there can be no abuse of negotiation
power on the part of some actors”.
Amazon has recently
been investigated for possible tax evasion in Italy, a case it settled
with the promise of a 100m euro payment last week. Luxembourg meanwhile
is appealing against an EU order to recoup 250m euros in back taxes from
Amazon.
