Amazon Japan’s offices were raided by
authorities Tuesday over an alleged anti-monopoly law violation, a source
said, with the e-commerce giant accused of abusing its industry dominance to
drive down prices.
The Japan Fair Trade Commission conducted an on-site inspection of Amazon’s
Japanese subsidiary in Tokyo, reportedly its third probe into the company over
domineering behaviour.
This time, the focus was on what is known as the “buy box” — a coveted
spot on the Amazon.co.jp website that allows products to be featured
prominently.
Competition for the spot is intense, with sellers offering the same product
treating it like a “matter of life and death”, the source, who declined to be
identified, told AFP.
“We’ve been told that whether they can secure the ‘buy box’ makes a huge
difference in terms of sales,” he said.
Sellers have been pressured to lower prices to give Amazon a competitive
edge over rival e-commerce sites, or forfeit their right to the buy box, the
source said.
The US company is also accused of using the buy box to make sellers use
in-house logistics services for everything from packing to order processing
and shipping.
Such tactics can constitute “abuse of a dominant position” and
“transactions with binding conditions”, both banned by Japan’s anti-monopoly
law, the source said.
Amazon Japan told AFP that it will “fully cooperate with the Fair Trade
Commission’s investigation”.
Globally, Amazon last year reported net profit of more than $30 billion on
revenue of 575 billion dollars, powered by its online retail operation and its cloud
computing division.
Amazon’s businesses include retail, advertising, and streamed movies and
music — a model that also has the 30-year-old company facing a US government
lawsuit, accused of expanding an illegal monopoly and otherwise harming
competition.(AFP)