CMA secures data commitments from Amazon and Meta

The Competition and Markets Authority announced on Friday that it has separately secured commitments from two major tech giants, Amazon and Meta Platforms, to promote fair competition on their respective retail platforms.

In the case of Amazon, the CMA said its efforts had resulted in commitments that seek to level the playing field for third-party Amazon Marketplace sellers and ensure that UK customers could access the best deals.

Most sales on Amazon, spanning various products, occur through the ‘Buy Box.’

Under the secured commitments, the CMA said independent sellers on the Marketplace would have a fair opportunity for their offers to be featured in the ‘Buy Box,’ preventing customers from missing out on attractive product offers.

Furthermore, Amazon would be prohibited from using Marketplace data acquired from third-party sellers to gain an unfair competitive advantage.

Sellers would also be able to negotiate their own delivery rates directly with independent providers of Prime delivery services.

To ensure compliance with the commitments, an independent trustee approved by the CMA would monitor the situation.

The CMA launched an investigation in July last year, addressing concerns that Amazon was exploiting its dominant position in the UK’s online retail sector.

That included allegations of favouring its own retail business over competing Marketplace sellers and logistics service providers.

In July, the CMA opened a consultation on the commitments proposed by Amazon during the investigation.

Facebook parent Meta, meanwhile, had made commitments to protect competition and prevent the misuse of advertising customers’ data.

The measures were intended to safeguard the interests of businesses and consumers alike, the CMA explained.

Under the agreements with Meta, competitors of Facebook Marketplace advertising on Meta platforms could now choose to ‘opt out’ of sharing their data to improve Facebook Marketplace.

Additionally, Meta pledged to limit its use of ad data in developing products, meaning it could not exploit advertising customers’ data to gain an unfair advantage when competing with products or services offered by those advertising customers.

“We welcome the constructive resolution of our concerns in a way that benefits people and businesses and expect to see more of this kind of resolution once the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill comes into force,” said CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell.

Ann Pope, the CMA’s senior director for antitrust enforcement, said the regulator accepted Amazon’s commitments as it would help thousands of independent UK sellers to compete on a level playing field against Amazon’s own retail arm.

“This should also mean customers get access to the best product offers.”

Pope said the commitments secured from Meta meant the firm could not exploit advertising customers’ data to give itself an unfair advantage and, as such, distort competition.

“Having assessed the commitments and the feedback received, including from sellers, advertisers and customers, we believe both sets of commitments address the specific competition concerns we had here in the UK.”

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.