In August 2023, the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court accepted a case filed by Guangzhou Mengbian Information Technology Co., Ltd. (the “Plaintiff”) against Amazon Services Europe Sarl (“Amazon Europe”) for alleged abuse of market dominance.
This case marks the first instance of the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court handling a cross-border e-commerce company’s dispute against an overseas e-commerce platform for the abuse of market dominance.
The Plaintiff is an e-commerce company focusing on foreign trade, which is engaged in cross-border trade agency and goods import and export.
The Plaintiff alleges that Amazon is the world’s largest overseas e-commerce platform operator, and Amazon Europe is Amazon’s European subsidiary, holding a dominant market position in the field of e-commerce within Europe.
The Plaintiff asserts that Amazon Europe abused Article 3 of the self-drafted “Amazon Services Europe Business Solutions Agreement” to close the Plaintiff’s online store, disable its account, and refuse transactions without justified reasons.
The Plaintiff requests the court to order Amazon Europe to unblock the Plaintiff’s frozen account, to modify the algorithm and data of the buy box as well as the platform in order to allow the Plaintiff to freely choose logistics service providers and to compete fairly with products sold by Amazon; and to seek compensation from Amazon Europe for economic losses incurred and the refund of the account balance.
The case is currently in the stage of serving the summons to Amazon Europe.
Photo by Rafik Wahba on Unsplash
Contributors: CJO Staff Contributors Team
