The German Federal Cartel Office announced that Amazon’s practice of setting prices on the Amazon Marketplace will be curtailed. Amazon has been prohibited from influencing the prices of independent sellers on its platform. The agency stated that Amazon may only apply mechanisms to control seller prices in exceptional cases, such as in situations of price gouging.
Kartellamt president Andreas Mundt explained that Amazon directly competes with other marketplace sellers. Therefore, any pressure on competitors’ pricing- even in the form of upper price limits- is only permissible in rare exceptions. Otherwise, there is a risk that Amazon could steer the overall price level on its platform to the detriment of outside online retailers. Such interventions could push sellers unable to cover their costs into being displaced from the marketplace.
Amazon currently employs several price‑control tools. When these tools judge a seller’s price to be too high, the corresponding listings are either removed entirely from the marketplace or simply do not appear in prominent shopping displays. The loss of visibility, the cartel office warned, can lead to “significant revenue shortfalls” for affected merchants.
Mundt also clarified that Amazon’s objective of offering consumers the lowest possible prices is not in conflict with these tools. However, he added that these mechanisms are not essential for achieving that goal, and the company could pursue other methods.
The controls are built on opaque rules and notifications, the cartel office said. Sellers are not given clear guidance on how price ceilings are determined or approximately what those ceilings are. Consequently, marketplace sellers cannot predict under what conditions their offers might become invisible or less visible. The Bundeskartellamt views these systematic intrusions into sellers’ price‑setting freedom as an abuse under the special regulations for large digital firms and a breach of general antitrust provisions.
In addition, for the first time the Bundeskartellamt has exercised the 2023 reform that allows the seizure of the “economic advantage” that Amazon gained through its anticompetitive conduct. Under the new presumptive rule, the cartel office identified the infringement as ongoing and set an initial amount of about €59 million.
The proceedings were coordinated with the European Commission, which is responsible for enforcing the EU Regulation on fair and disputed digital markets. The decision on transparency requirements was also aligned with the Federal Network Agency, which enforces the Platform‑to‑Business Regulation.
The Bundeskartellamt’s decision is not yet final. Amazon has one month to file an appeal, after which the Federal Court will decide on the matter.
