'The Bundeskartellamt has today initiated an abuse proceeding against Amazon to examine its terms of business and practices towards sellers on its German marketplace amazon.de', it said in a statement.
The watchdog’s chief, Andreas Mundt, said his agency had received numerous complaints from sellers about Amazon’s business practice in the recent past.
'Amazon functions as a kind of "gatekeeper" for customers. Its double role as the largest retailer and the largest marketplace has the potential to hinder other sellers on its platform', Mundt was quoted as saying in the statement.
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The German investigation doubles up on a probe into Amazon’s collection and use of transaction data by the European Commission, which quizzed several hundred German retailers last summer.