Margrethe Vestager, head of the European Union's
Directorate-General for Competition ("DG Comp"), recently
announced that the EU was once again investigating actions of a
high-profile tech company – Amazon.
During a press conference held in Brussels in September,
Commissioner Vestager affirmed that DG Comp had already sent
questionnaires to market participants and started looking into
Amazon's potential abuse of dominance. However, DG Comp has not
yet opened a formal case. As the Commissioner stated,
"[t]hese are very early days and we haven't formally
opened a case. We are trying to make sure that we get the full
picture."
This investigation comes only a year after Amazon was found to
have received illegal state aid through tax rulings of the State of
Luxembourg, which was then ordered to recover more than €250
million.
