Amazon has taken over Europe. After a 20-year-long expansion, supercharged during Covid-19, the US giant is now by far the dominant e-commerce company in Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Spain. In these countries, Amazon is the main port of call for online shoppers. That has made the company nearly unavoidable for independent sellers that wish to sell their products online. This gives Amazon immense power to set abusive terms and extract ever-increasing fees from sellers.
The EU can’t and shouldn’t really take direct action against Amazon as a company. The Digital Markets Act however, taking effect later this year and starting to be enforced over the next, is specifically targeting these abusive practices.