In a statement, the competition, consumer, and anti-fraud office (DGCCRF) said it had already ordered the company to correct ‘a significant imbalance in contractual conditions to Amazon's benefit’ in December 2021.
Amazon blew past the 22 March deadline to comply, with this penalty corresponding to 90,000 euros per day it failed to make the changes.
The US web giant had already been fined EUR 4 million by the Paris trade court in 2019 for unfair conditions in its contracts with third-party sellers, the DGCCRF recalled. New irregularities were uncovered in a fresh probe after that judgment, it added.
The fine against Amazon is the first use of a new DGCCRF power allowing it to impose penalties of up to one percent of a company's worldwide revenue relative to the seriousness of the harm to economic order.
An Amazon spokesman said the company remains in disagreement with the DGCCRF on its conclusions, its decisions and the relevant penalty, and is contesting each of them in court.
In November 2022, Amazon announced the halt of its wholesale distribution business in India, Amazon Distribution, marking it the latest in a series of retreats for the retailer in the market.
Amazon Distribution was designed to help kiranas, the neighbourhood stores in India, pharmacies, and department stores with securing inventory from the ecommerce giant.
The solution enabled members to purchase thousands of items for resale at any time of the day, at competitive prices and in bulk quantities, enabling various payment options, offering a GST bill for the order and next-day doorstep deliveries, as described on the Amazon Distribution website.
As per a statement quoted by TechCrunch, a company spokesperson has advised that the company is discontinuing the programmes in a phased manner to take care of current customers and partners.
India was believed to be one on the key overseas markets for the retailer, with the company having deployed over USD 7 billion in the region in the past decade. Amazon made no comment on as to why it is shutting down its wholesale distribution offering, however the move follows the company’s halting of two other businesses in the country, its food delivery and online learning platform Academy, amid a business global restructuring.
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