Amazon Told to Come Clean in German Toilet-Paper Pricing Probe
- Marketplace participants complained to regulator about policy
- Amazon defended move as fighting against price gouging
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Amazon.com Inc. is no stranger to investigations by regulators into possible abuse of its market dominance. But in Germany, a probe by cartel authorities is trying to establish if intervention of a different kind took place: to keep prices low.
The case plays out during the initial phase of the coronavirus pandemic, when shoppers were panic-buying staples from tinned tomatoes to dry pasta to toilet paper. That crazed rush led to price inflation on Amazon’s German site, where a pack of 10 toilet-paper rolls suddenly sold at a steep premium of 22 euros (the price has since settled at a fraction of that cost). Amazon intervened in March, threatening to expel merchants that don’t comply with its pricing policy.