UK secures commitments from Amazon and Meta over retail platforms

LONDON (Reuters): Britain’s competition watchdog said on Friday it had accepted commitments from tech companies Meta (META.O) and Amazon (AMZN.O) to help protect fair competition on their retail platforms.

The commitments from the U.S. tech giants mark the end of the Competition & Markets Authority’s (CMA) investigation into Amazon Marketplace and Meta’s use of advertising data.

Amazon has committed to not use rival sellers’ marketplace data to gain an unfair advantage, ensuring that third-party marketplace sellers can compete on a level-playing field, the CMA said.

Amazon’s commitments will ensures that independent sellers that use the marketplace will be given a fair chance for their offers being featured in the “Buy Box”, it said.

While Meta signed commitments to prevent it from “exploiting” its advertising customers’ data, resulting in competitors that advertise on its platforms having the ability to “opt out” of their data being used to improve Facebook Marketplace.

Meta said that it welcomed the regulator’s decision.

CMA in July had said that Amazon’s offer to change the way it treats third-party sellers using its Marketplace platform addresses competition concerns in its preliminary view.