Amazon Agrees to Change Some Business Practices in E.U. Settlement

Amazon has agreed to a settlement with European Union regulators that will force the company to make significant changes to its business practices but also allows the e-commerce giant to avoid a drawn out legal fight and billions of dollars of potential fines, according to three people with knowledge of the deal.

The settlement, expected to be announced on Dec. 20, will end two antitrust investigations in Europe. The deal will require Amazon to give makers of rival products equal access to valuable real estate on its website, said the people, who would speak only anonymously before the official announcement. The company will also be barred from using nonpublic information it gathers about independent merchants to inform Amazon’s own product offerings, among other changes.

The deal represents a sign of progress for European regulators, even though Amazon faces no financial penalty. Regulators have spent years trying, with mixed success, to force the world’s largest technology companies to change business practices that they believe thwart competition, undermine data privacy safeguards and allow illicit online content.

The agreement may foreshadow changes at Apple, Google and Meta, which are also facing E.U. antitrust investigations and are racing to comply with new European laws that target the tech sector and take effect by 2024. The result could be changes to everyday digital tools, including app stores, online advertising methods and the policies for policing toxic content on social media.