The European Commission in November last year charged the
world's biggest online retailer with using its size, power and data to push its
own products and gain an unfair advantage over rival merchants that sell on its
online platform.
It also opened an investigation into Amazon's possible
preferential treatment of its own retail offers and those of marketplace
sellers that use its logistics and delivery services.
Amazon is engaged in preliminary discussions with the EU
competition enforcer and has offered concessions to address their concerns, the
people said.
Settlement talks can take months to wrap up, with no
guarantee that both sides will reach an agreement.
Amazon, however, may find a receptive ear in EU antitrust
chief Margrethe Vestager compared to Alphabet unit Google, which tried but
failed to settle with her.
Vestager, who has taken a tough line with Apple and Meta as
well, has cited Amazon's willingness in 2017 to offer concessions to settle an
investigation into its distribution deals with e-book publishers in Europe,
which she subsequently accepted.
An offer to settle gives a company an opportunity to take
the edge off regulatory demands for changes to business practices seen as
anti-competitive.
The Commission, which can fine companies up to 10 percent of
their global turnover, declined to comment. Based on last year's revenue, that
could total around $38.6 billion for Amazon.
Amazon is also under fire in India after thousands of pages
of internal Amazon documents examined by Reuters show it ran a systematic
campaign of creating knockoffs and manipulating search results to boost its own
product lines in India.
It also faces a Washington D.C. antitrust lawsuit over its
agreements with wholesalers as well as third-party sellers. -Reuters
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