regulator has been looking into how Amazon sets the eligibility criteria for selling under the Prime label loyalty program - and it suggests the changes proposed by Amazon now will enable customers to benefit from lower delivery costs where better rates are negotiated. It’s not taken the step of issuing a formal statement of objections - so, if accepted, Amazon’s commitments could avoid the company being subject to a longer and deeper probe. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) opened an investigation into aspects of Amazon’s U.K. The ecommerce giant has also offered to allow third-party businesses using its marketplace to sell physical goods to negotiate their own rates directly with independent providers of Prime delivery services. The GMB union, which is concerned about worker safety in its depots, said the online retailer was a “greedy, profit-driven company that would always put profits before the planet”.In a move seeking to settle an open antitrust investigation in the U.K., Amazon has offered to limit its use of data on marketplace sellers so its retail business cannot gain an unfair advantage over other sellers and provide a guarantee of equal treatment for all products displayed in the ‘Buy Box’ that appears on listings on its ecommerce marketplace, the national competition watchdog said today. Similar investigations in France and Germany have found evidence of the practice in other Amazon warehouses. As a last resort, we will send items to energy recovery, but we’re working hard to drive the number of times this happens down to zero.”Įnergy recovery is a term for the conversion of waste materials to generate heat, electricity or fuel, for example through incineration.Īnalysts suggested goods might be being destroyed in this way because it is cheaper to dispose of them than to continue storing the stock. “Our priority is to resell, donate or recycle any unsold products. “Every item thrown away is a waste of valuable and finite resources, and that is why we are committed to creating a more circular economy for our waste and resources.”ĭefra is currently reviewing the regulations for waste electrical equipment so as to drive up reuse and recycling and ensure manufacturers and retailers - including online marketplaces - take greater responsibility.Īmazon said it did not send any items to landfill in the UK. “It is vital that more goods are reused or recycled and not condemned to landfill or incineration,” said a Defra spokesman. The prime minister Boris Johnson has promised the government will look into the company’s conduct and on Tuesday the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) issued a statement, saying it was imperative to end a “throwaway culture and recycle more of our waste” in the UK. An ex-employee told ITV that workers in the warehouse had a target to destroy 130,000 items a week. The bins were then loaded on to lorries, with electrical goods taken to a waste management site and the remainder to a recycling centre. The Amazon fulfilment centre in Dunfermline, Fife. The secret filming by ITV News in an area of Amazon’s Dunfermline warehouse called the “destruction zone” showed items, ranging from computer equipment to hairdryers, power tools, books and even sealed face masks, being sorted into boxes labelled “destroy”. They seem to be almost like a nation state. “You have the combination of them throwing away perfectly good things that people desperately need and treating their staff as badly as they do. McDonagh said it was a picture of “wanton waste”. “It is incredibly concerning to see these devices being disposed of wilfully, at great loss to different charities and organisations that could do so much work repurposing them and distributing them to those that need them,” the letter adds. The destruction of unwanted laptops and tablets was incredibly damaging for the environment, they said, but also a “missed opportunity to help millions of people in the UK who do not have a device to connect to the internet”, said the letter, signed by Julie Elliott, Siobhain McDonagh and Darren Jones.
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