Is Amazon's "outlier" behaviour anti-competitive?

The online retailer Amazon faced claims for injunctions requiring it to cease offering textile products to consumers without providing information about the fibres used and failing to comply with the Price Indication Regulation.

The subject matter of the proceedings was that the online retailer Amazon offered women's blouses as a seller on its sales portal without complying with the requirements of the Textile Labelling Regulation. Under this regulation, a textile merchant must provide consumers with information about the material from which the garment is made. However, in one case, Amazon had failed to specify the textile fibres from which the blouse offered on the internet was made.

Furthermore, Amazon offered other goods without stating the unit price. However, this is required by the Price Indication Regulation (PAngV), and breaches of this obligation are just as anti-competitive as breaches of the Textile Labelling Regulation.

For this reason, the Competition Authority made claims for anti-competitive injunctions against Amazon and the Regional Court (LG) Cologne upheld its position.

Amazon defended itself by arguing that the offerings criticised by the Competition Authority were merely "outliers" which, given the volume of Amazon's offerings, could not be entirely prevented, and it appealed the first instance decision to the Higher Regional Court (OLG) Cologne for review.

Court Decision

The Higher Regional Court (OLG) Cologne upheld judgment of 19.06.2015 – Az. 6 U 183/14 the legal opinion of the Regional Court. Amazon was directly liable under competition law for breaches of statutory information and labelling obligations.

The Higher Regional Court (OLG) did not accept the online retailer's arguments. It could be expected of every undertaking, regardless of its size, to comply with the Union law information and labelling obligations.

Conclusion

Size does not shield against sanctions! Amazon cannot defend itself by claiming that it is impossible to comply with every information obligation due to its size. It remains the case that every online retailer must comply with Union law information and labelling obligations.