Germany’s anti-trust watchdog has launched an investigation into Amazon’s relationship with third-party traders selling on its site, as per its head’s statement. 

“We are currently investigating whether and how Amazon influences how traders set prices on the marketplace,” Andreas Mundt, President of the Federal Cartel Office, told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily.

Germany is second to the United States in terms of Amazon’s biggest market. 

According to Mundt, there were complaints against Amazon that the company had blocked some traders because of allegedly too high prices. These complaints were lodged during the first few months of the coronavirus pandemic when many stores were closed and shoppers flocked online. 

“Amazon must not be a controller of prices,” he said, adding that Amazon had responded to his office’s requests for information and those statements were now being evaluated.

Amazon could not immediately be reached for comment.

Amazon was forced by the German anti-trust watchdog to abandon a policy. The policy was to prevent traders from offering their products via other online sites at a lower price than on its market place, the policy was in place up till 2013. 

Last year, Amazon reached a deal with the German authority to overhaul its terms of service for third-party merchants, prompting the office to drop a previous seven-month investigation.

(Inputs from Reuters)