LONDON: Britain’s competition watchdog is planning a formal competition investigation into e-commerce company Amazon.com Inc, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing three unidentified people familiar with the situation.
The Competition and Markets Authority has been analysing Amazon’s business for months, the newspaper said, adding regulator was focusing on how the online retailer uses the data it collects on its platform. The regulator has also scrutinised how Amazon decides which merchants appear in the crucial ‘buy box’the white panel to the right-hand side of a product where buyers click to add the item to their cart, the report added.A probe into the company may focus on whether Amazon favours merchants that also use its logistics and delivery services when deciding who has access to the buy box and to its Prime customers, the newspaper said, citing the sources.