At the beginning of December 2020, Amazon informed an online retailer by email that her seller account had been deactivated. All offers have also been removed from the website and the credit balance has been frozen until further notice.
Without giving further details, Amazon justified this by stating that the retailer had manipulated customer reviews for its products. The retailer, which claims to generate a turnover of around one million euros per year, applied for legal protection against this decision by the American online giant in the form of a temporary injunction at the Munich I Regional Court. Her out-of-court attempts to regain access had previously failed.
Munich Regional Court I: Amazon has a “dominant market position”
The Munich judges granted the retailer’s application on January 14, 2021. They issued a temporary injunction requiring Amazon to unblock the retailer’s account, credit balance and offers.
While other German regional courts have already ruled that an account blocking by Amazon is unlawful, the interim injunction issued by the Regional Court of Munich I now expressly refers to antitrust law (Sections 33, 19 GWB): The court was of the opinion that Amazon holds a dominant position on the relevant product and geographic market – namely the provision of online marketplace services for online retailers.
Amazon must prove that its block is justified
The court allowed prima facie evidence to suffice for this. This is based on the extensive investigations carried out by the German Federal Cartel Office and the EU Commission in recent years. Amazon must therefore demonstrate non-discriminatory conduct based on objective considerations when entering into and terminating business relationships.
This is a first for the platform, which has always been able to successfully avoid being classified as “dominant”. What remains is a victory for online retailers. Their rights have been sustainably strengthened by the decision. In order to end the often existence-threatening situation of an unjustified block as quickly as possible, affected retailers now have more options. Rapid judicial enforcement in particular can be essential here.
