Amazon, cyberbullying to the detriment of both consumers and suppliers. Great Italian Food Trade is still appealing to the Antitrust Authority for the restoration of legality in food buying and selling services through ecommerce by the American giant.
Amazon, concealed information
Great Italian Food Trade
has already reported numerous cases of concealed information to the Competition and Market Authority (Antitrust).
The survey conducted on 250 products, representing about 20 percent of those displayed for sale by Amazon, revealed the systematic lack of basic information prescribed by the Food Information Regulation. (1) Further verification have demonstrated the unsuitability of the Amazon Pantry service to inform consumers about the essential characteristics of the food being sold.
Serious offenses-which in some cases amount to the crime of fraud in commerce-came to light in a subsequent analysis of products sold on the ecommerce portal in question. But the Supervisory Authority has to date offered no feedback whatsoever. (2)
Illegality persists, in defiance of the rights of consumers and particularly those who are most vulnerable, such as allergic and celiac consumers. Amazon continues to sell food products without providing basic mandatory news. From ingredient list to allergenic ingredients, food name and nutrition table, information concealed.
Amazon, unfair trade practices
The procedures adopted by Amazon-which our independent information site has collected and shared with theAntitrust Authority -reveal the system’s inherent unsuitability to guarantee consumers the information acknowledged to them by EU Regulation 1169/11. Not only that.
Business relations with suppliers are based on contracts, imposed by the Cupertino (California, USA) giant, which blatantly violate the principles of fairness, proportionality and mutual consideration of performance instead established by our legal system.
Unlawful contractual clauses are suffered obtorto colloquially by Amazon’s suppliers, which abuses its market dominance to offload upstream the risks inherent in its business activities onto suppliers. Thus altering the competition and market that the eponymous Authority is supposed to guarantee in Italy.
Abuses and predominations are in front of the eyes of consumers blinded by the illusion of savings at any cost. To the social cost of worker exploitation andtax evasion granted in Luxembourg by the now president of the European Commission.
Amazon, stop cyberbullying!
Ecommerce is set to grow, even in the old continent, thanks to digital natives. The fateful Millennials, who are just this year beginning to come of age, are more familiar with the smartphone than with the shopping cart.
Rights, however, are not sold off with a prepaid card or a PayPal account. And indeed all the more so-in this increasingly ‘liquid’ economy foreshadowed by Zygmunt Bauman-it is imperative to be vigilant about the ironclad enforcement of rules.
The responsibilities of ecommerce operators are already clearly defined, in the food sector as in others. And it is time for everyone, starting from No. 1, to comply with it without further delay. No more cyberbullying!
Dario Dongo and Giulia Torre
Notes
(1) See reg. EU 1169/11, Article 24
(2) We remain, by the way, waiting for news, from the same Authority, regarding the reporting of five cases of Milk Sounding. The first of which, concerning the false ‘80% milk’ claim on Galatine candies, has already been censured by the IAP (Institute for Advertising Self-Discipline) in the meantime. See https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade .it/consum-attori/galatine-80-latte-falso
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
Graduated in law, master in European Food Law, she deals with agro-food, veterinary and agricultural legislation. She is a PhD in agrisystem.
