The European Union is reportedly set to file antitrust charges against Amazon.
The EU will hit Amazon with formal antitrust charges "as early as next week or the week after" over its treatment of third-party sellers, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
An antitrust investigation into Amazon was previously announced by the European Commission, with Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager pledging to "take a very close look at Amazon's business practices and its dual role as marketplace and retailer, to assess its compliance with EU competition rules."
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In a statement of objections, The Wall Street Journal reports, the EU "accuses Amazon of scooping up data from third-party sellers and using that information to compete against them, for instance by launching similar products." A decision on whether the company violated competition laws is "expected to take at least another year," the report says, but Amazon could potentially face a fine of 10 percent of its annual revenue.
In April, the Journal reported that Amazon employees had used data from third-party sellers to develop competing products; Amazon at the time said that "we strictly prohibit our employees from using nonpublic, seller-specific data to determine which private label products to launch."
Members of the House Judiciary Committee in response to that Journal report in May asked Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to testify before Congress, in a letter saying that if the report is correct, "then statements Amazon made to the committee about the company's business practices appear to be misleading, and possibly criminally false or perjurious."
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