ERDEM-NEWSLETTER-2018-metin

80 NEWSLETTER 2018 and the general principles of determination of dominance and abuse in online platforms will be briefly discussed. Bundeskartellamt’s Recent Investigation of Amazon One of the latest rings in the chain of interest of competition au- thorities in online platforms is the recent proceeding initiated by the German competition authority, Bundeskartellamt, against the online marketplace, Amazon, that commenced on November 29th, 2018. Bundeskartellamt claimed that Amazon is the largest online retailer and operates, by far, the largest online marketplace in Germany. Fur- thermore, in the press release for the investigation, it alleges that many retailers and manufacturers depend on the reach of Amazon’s market- place for their online sales, and that Amazon functions as a kind of “gatekeeper” for customers 1 . Andreas Mundt, the president of Bundeskartellamt, emphasized that Amazon’s double role as the largest retailer and largest market- place has the potential to hinder other sellers on its platform, and high- lighted that they have received numerous complaints and, as a result, they have decided to thoroughly examine whether Amazon is abusing its market position to the detriment of sellers who are active on its marketplace. To that end, Bundeskartellamt will scrutinize Amazon’s terms of business and practices towards sellers. This proceeding is not the first step that has been taken by compe- tition authorities against Amazon on abuse of dominance allegations. The European Commission (“Commission”) has previously begun investigations based on European competition law into Amazon’s Eu- ropean marketplaces and, in particular, into Amazon’s collection and use of transaction data. In the summer of 2018, the Commission sent out extensive questionnaires to several hundred retailers throughout Europe to this effect. Bundeskartellamt’s proceedings appear to be a supplementary additional step taken in Germany, in addition to the Commission’s overall proceedings. That said, whereas the Commis- 1 Official press release by Bundeskartellamt dated 29 November 2018; https:// www.bundeskartel lamt .de/SharedDocs/Meldung/DE/Pressemi t tei lun- gen/2018/29_11_2018_Verfahrenseinleitung_Amazon.html?nn=3591286 (Ac- cess date: December 2018).