amazon faces antitrust charges for abusing its dominance in ecommerce people say the european commission plans to bring charges that amazon abused its dominance in ecommercecreditthomas samsonagence francepresse getty imagesjune 11 2020london european union officials are preparing to bring antitrust charges against amazon for abusing its dominance in internet commerce to box out smaller rivals according to people with knowledge of the casenearly two years in the making the case is one of the most aggressive attempts by a government to crimp the power of the ecommerce giant which has largely sidestepped regulation throughout its 26year historythe european union regulators who already have a reputation as the worlds most aggressive watchdogs of the technology industry have determined that amazon is stifling competition by unfairly using data collected from thirdparty merchants to boost its own product offerings said the people who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the deliberations were privatethe case against amazon is part of a broader attempt in the united states and europe to probe the business practices of the worlds largest technology companies as authorities on both sides of the atlantic see what they believe is a worrying concentration of power in the digital economymargarethe vestager the european commissioner who leads antitrust enforcement and digital policy is also examining practices by apple and facebook in washington the justice department federal trade commission and congress are targeting amazon apple facebook and googlewilliam kovacic a law professor at george washington university said the tech industry was facing a striking critical mass of attention from governments around the world including australia brazil and india he said that regulators in brussels and washington may deploy socalled interim measures against the companies a rarely used tool that could force amazon and other large tech platforms to halt certain practices while a case is litigatedthis is a groundswell mr kovacic saidan announcement by european regulators about amazon could come this summer although the timing is still in flux one of the people said the wall street journal first reported the expected chargesthe european commissions antitrust office which started investigating amazon in 2018 is planning to release what is known as a statement of objections against the company outlining its conclusions about how it has violated antitrust laws it is just one step in what could be a yearslong process before final decisions are made about whether to impose a fine or other penalties on the company a settlement could also be reachedamazon declined to comment as did the european commissionthe case stems from amazons treatment of thirdparty merchants who rely on its website to reach customers investigators have focused on amazons dual role as both the owner of its online store and a seller of goods that compete with other sellers creating a conflict of interestauthorities in europe have concluded that amazon abuses its position to give its own products preferential treatment european officials have spent the past year interviewing merchants and others who depend on amazon to better understand how it