Amazon, Meta settle UK antitrust investigations

CMA concerned about use of competitor data to improve own services

The UK's Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) has reached an agreement with Meta and Amazon, securing commitments to ensure fair competition on their respective retail platforms.

The agreements come following separate probes by the regulator into the two companies' business practices.

The CMA's investigation into Meta, formerly Facebook, focused on the social media company's collection and use of data, with a particular focus on its Facebook Marketplace classified ads service.

The regulator was concerned that Meta could use data collected from user interactions with competing classified ads on Facebook to gain an unfair advantage for Marketplace. This could involve creating Marketplace listings that compete with offers from third-party classified websites, the regulator said.

Meta has now signed agreements to prevent the exploitation of advertising customers' data.

Other platforms competing with Facebook Marketplace that use Meta's infrastructure for promoting their products and services will be able to opt out of data use - or at least, opt out of Meta using specific parts of their advertising data to enhance Marketplace.

Meta has also committed to restricting its use of advertising data in its own product development.

Anti-competitive Amazon

The CMA had similar concerns about Amazon. The regulator launched an investigation into the firm began last summer, when concerns were raised about whether the e-commerce giant had been giving its own products, and sellers using its logistics services, an unfair advantage over third-party competitors on its marketplace.

At the same time, the European Commission was leading a parallel investigation into the same matter.

Reports had suggested that Amazon was using data from third-party sellers to create competing products, potentially putting independent businesses at a disadvantage.

The CMA raised concerns that these practices may be anti-competitive, potentially resulting in a less favourable deal for consumers.

Amazon has now committed to ensuring that independent sellers have a fair chance to feature their offers in the platform's coveted "buy box," where a majority of sales occur.

Furthermore, the company will refrain from using marketplace data obtained from third-party sellers to gain an unfair competitive edge.

Both Amazon and Meta have welcomed the CMA's decision.

An Amazon spokesperson stated, "We have engaged constructively with the CMA and we welcome this resolution which will preserve our ability to serve both our customers and the over 100,000 small and medium-sized businesses selling through our UK store."

A Meta spokesperson said: "We welcome the CMA's decision to close its investigation into Marketplace on the basis of the commitments offered by Meta to put in place systems and controls designed to confirm and validate that advertiser data from competitors is not used in Marketplace."