The German Federal Antitrust Office issued a decision concerning the “price fixing” policy enabled by Amazon on its German Amazon marketplace. Marketplace operators are also required to pay a EUR 59 million penalty. Amazon officials announced they will appeal the decision.
The authority claims it has proven that Amazon employs unlawful price-setting controls that directly affect hundreds of thousands of third-party sellers who use the platform’s facilitation services to sell their products. The Federal Antitrust Authority prohibits Amazon from proceeding with its price-setting system.
The German Antitrust authority emphasizes that Amazon lacks the authority to set, by default, the pricing terms and conditions that third-party vendors must adhere to, leaving them with insufficient freedom to define their own pricing strategy for the products they offer.
Amazon Marketplace is also a direct competitor with hundreds of thousands of third-party sellers on the German marketplace, considering that Amazon is also an independent online retailer of its own products.
One of the pivotal drivers behind this decision is that Amazon Marketplace in Germany accounts for more than 60% of the country’s e-commerce revenue. Various reports indicate that the German Amazon marketplace had aggregate turnover exceeding EUR 50 billion in 2025.
Price fixing strategy
How does the price-fixing strategy system function in general? The implemented algorithm identifies whether the product price is too high; if so, the product is removed from listings or marginalized (until it disappears).
The Federal Authority underscores that these pricing policies directly affect the third-party supplier’s revenue, pricing strategy, and compliance with market conditions.
As the Amazon directly competes with its “own” third-party registered users, it is directly defining their pricing strategies, undermining healthy competition.
It remains to be seen if Amazon will move forward with the appeal, and what the final outcome of this dispute will be.
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