Amazon offers concessions to head off EU antitrust cases

By KELVIN CHAN
AP Business Writer

LONDON (AP) — Amazon has promised to treat third-party merchants on its website fairly as it seeks to resolve two European Union antitrust investigations. The bloc’s competition watchdog said Thursday that the U.S. online retail giant offered to make a number of commitments to ease competition concerns. The European Commission, the 27-nation bloc’s top antitrust enforcer, will now seek feedback on those commitments from “interested parties.” The commission launched an investigation four years ago over concerns that Amazon was using data from merchants selling products on its platform to gain an unfair advantage over them. It also opened a separate investigation into whether Amazon favors its own retail business and merchants that use its logistics and delivery system.