Report from TVP World
In Brief – Poland’s competition authority (UOKik) is investigating Allegro, the country’s leading e-commerce platform, for allegedly breaching consumer protection and competition rules related to the platform’s logistics services. UOKiK said Allegro, which holds a dominant position in Poland’s online retail market, may have unfairly favored its own logistics services over third-party providers. Specifically, the regulator is examining whether Allegro prioritized its parcel lockers and couriers within its delivery program, potentially disadvantaging rival parcel locker operators and limiting consumer choice. Parcel locker company InPost launched arbitration proceedings last September, alleging Allegro made it harder for customers to select InPost for shipping. Allegro denies wrongdoing and says it is cooperating fully with the competition officials.
Context – Antitrust complaints related to ecommerce and logistics usually involve Amazon. The ecommerce giant has been the dominant ecommerce marketplace and the largest ecommerce logistics provider for years in the US and many other top markets, including in Europe. Amazon’s Marketplace preferences products sold by third-party merchants when the products are housed in, and shipped by, Amazon’s FBA logistics business. Amazon argues that FBA is superior. However, combined Amazon marketplace and logistics fees also often reach 50 percent. Amazon’s price parity policy that penalizes third-party sellers who attempt to sell similar products on competing sites for lower prices, which often involve lower marketplace and logistics fees, is the subject of regulatory and legal challenges in many markets. In Italy, Amazon self-preferencing its FBA logistics service was the subject of an antitrust investigation that began in 2019 and resulted in a €1.13 billion fine in 2021. Concerns with unfair marketplace and logistics do extend beyond Amazon. In Indonesia, approval of TikTok’s acquisition of ecommerce platform Tokopedia included a requirement that TikTok allow users to freely choose logistics competitors.