Amazon fined 10 million for unfair commercial practice. The Antitrust (Competition and Market Authority) sanctioned the e-commerce giant for having pre-selected the“periodic purchase” option rather than “single purchase” on a wide range of products on its Italian site, thus limiting consumers' freedom of choice. The fine was imposed on the two companies of the Amazon group, Amazon Services Europe and Amazon Eu.
“Thanks to the preliminary investigation, the Antitrust has ascertained that Amazon implements a unfair commercial practice consisting of the pre-selection of periodic purchases for a wide selection of products offered on the site https://www.amazon.it. In particular, on the web page where the characteristics of the selected item are described, the "periodic purchase" option is pre-set instead of "single purchase", both for products sold by Amazon and for products sold by third parties on the marketplace" we read in the note from the Agcm. “This way, it comes freedom is considerably limited of consumer choice" as "The graphic pre-tick of the recurring purchase leads to the periodic purchase of a product - even without actual need - thus limiting the right to choose".
Amazon violated the principle of professional diligence
The Authority declared that this practice violates the principle of professional diligence, since a giant like Amazon should allow consumers to make free and informed choices during the online purchasing process.
“The conduct implemented by the group was deemed to be in conflict with the canon of professional diligence because an operator of Amazon's importance would be required to build online interfaces relating to purchasing processes in order to allow consumers to make free commercial choices and aware” explained the Antitrust.
Initially, the pre-selection of paid fast delivery was also contested, but Amazon agreed to only pre-select the free delivery option in the future. The two sanctioned companies will compensate consumers who complained about this practice by contacting customer service in 2023.
