By Senad Karaahmetovic
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) has reached a settlement with the European Union concerning three antitrust probes. By addressing concerns coming from Brussels, Amazon avoided a fine of up to 10% of its global revenue.
"While we continue to disagree with several of the preliminary conclusions the European Commission made, we have engaged constructively to ensure that we can continue to serve customers across Europe," an Amazon spokesperson said.
Among other concessions, Amazon agreed not to use sellers’ data for its own business and to allow Amazon Prime sellers to choose their own logistics and delivery services.
"The Commission has decided to accept commitments offered by Amazon. These commitments address our preliminary competition concerns about Amazon practices on its e-commerce marketplace," EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager told a news conference.
Bank of America analysts believe the agreement with the EU could help reduce DMA (Digital Markets Act) overhang.
“We think the DMA has been an overhang for US mega-cap companies, so an agreement that is not disruptive to EU operations could be a modest positive,” they said in a client note.
“We anticipate limited financial impact (given Amazon's willingness to agree to a deal vs fight in court), and see agreement as a modest positive, mitigating a potential stock overhang. We reiterate our Buy rating.”
Amazon stock price closed at $84.92 yesterday.