German Federal Cartel Office Launches Fresh Antitrust Investigation Against Amazon: Report

Germany’s antitrust watchdog has initiated a fresh investigation into alleged exploitation of Amazon.com Inc’s AMZN market dominance, Reuters reports.
The investigation is focused on Amazon’s price control mechanisms and third-party trader relationships.
Germany’s amended antitrust laws for digital corporations offer more discretion to the Federal Cartel Office (FCO) for detecting and barring the misuse of dominant positions by the companies, CNBC reports.
Section 19a of the January 2021’s German Competition Act (GWB) enables the FCO to arbitrate quickly against large digital companies’ practices, TechCrunch reports.
Technology firms like Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL Google, and Amazon.Com Inc AMZN spent $2.7 million and $4.8 million on lobbying in Q1 following growing U.S. Congressional antitrust scrutiny.
Previously, the Indian antitrust body used Reuters’ evidence in an Amazon antitrust probe.
Price action: AMZN shares closed lower by 1.17% at $3,232.28 on Tuesday.