Amazon's pricing controls may be anticompetitive, German regulator warns

Packages with the logo of Amazon are transported at a packing station of a redistribution center of Amazon in Horn-Bad Meinberg, western Germany, on Dec. 9, 2024. The buy box is the listing that pops up first when a visitor clicks on a particular product, and the one that gets purchased when a shopper taps "Add to Cart." Amazon uses algorithms and statistical models to calculate certain price caps for products, the Cartel Office said. Products that are flagged as having "prices that are too high" or "prices that are not competitive" can then be demoted in search results, excluded from advertising or removed from the buy box, they added. The Federal Cartel Office said in its preliminary assessment that Amazon's pricing controls limit the visibility of merchants' products and, "based on non-transparent marketplace rules," interfere with their freedom to set prices. German antitrust regulators warned Amazon on Monday that the company's pricing mechanisms for third-party sellers could ... Read full article.