Competition Bureau Gets Court Order to Investigate Amazon Canada

Amazon is facing scrutiny from the Competition Bureau over the way it controls pricing on Amazon.ca. The announcement comes on the start of Prime Day, ironically.

The watchdog announced today it has secured a court order to compel Amazon to hand over documents as part of an ongoing investigation into whether its practices may be hurting competition and pushing prices higher for consumers.

At the heart of the probe is Amazon’s ‘Marketplace Fair Pricing Policy,’ a rule that’s been in place since 2017. The policy allows Amazon to take action against third-party sellers if their product prices are significantly higher on Amazon than what they’ve listed elsewhere—including other websites or marketplaces. That could mean removing listings or even suspending a seller’s account.

The Competition Bureau wants to know whether this policy is discouraging sellers from offering lower prices outside Amazon, making it harder for other e-commerce platforms to compete. It’s also looking at whether the policy lets Amazon charge sellers more in fees than it otherwise could, and whether that leads to higher retail prices overall.

While no findings of wrongdoing have been made yet, the Bureau says it’s serious enough to warrant forcing Amazon to turn over internal records. This investigation is separate from a previous case focused on Amazon’s marketing practices.

This isn’t the first time the Bureau has investigated Amazon Canada. Back in 2017 the online retail giant was fined $1.1 million over pricing practices.