By Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI (Reuters), A global trade union in the service sector called for European authorities to increase their antitrust probe of Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ 🙂 to see if Amazon.com was creating counterfeit goods or manipulating search results.

The UNI Global Union’s demand was prompted by a Reuters Report last week, based on Amazon internal documents. It revealed that AmazonBasics in India (a crucial growth market) ran a system of copying products and manipulating search result results.

A letter addressed to President Ursula von der Leyen of the European Commission, dated 22 October, was sent to Margrethe Vestager from the EU Antitrust Chief. The union’s European arm stated that the authorities must look into whether Amazon has engaged in any “similarly harmful behavior” within the European Union.

“As further revelations of the scale of Amazon’s operations to undermine that level playing field surface, further action is needed to ensure it is held accountable at every turn,” the letter, seen by Reuters, said. The Reuters story was cited.

Amazon spokespersons and European Commission spokespeople did not respond immediately to our requests for comment.

This union has long been critical of Big Tech’s global business practices. UNI Europa estimates that it has 7 million members and includes several labour unions of companies, such as those which represent Amazon warehouse workers in Spain, France, Germany, France and Italy.

The European authorities are already investigating Amazon’s position as both a marketplace for merchants and a rival seller.

The Commission accused the U.S. firm of unfairly gaining an advantage over small merchants who sell through its online marketplace last year. Amazon stated that it represented less than 1% in the world’s retail market, and that larger retailers exist in each country where its operations are located.

Reuters reviewed Amazon documents and found that the private-brands unit in India of Amazon secretly used internal data to duplicate products from other companies. The company then sold them on Amazon’s platform. According to the documents, it also promoted private brand sales by manipulating search results on India’s platform.

Amazon replied to the article by declaring that they believe “these claims” are unsubstantiated and factually incorrect. However, the company didn’t elaborate. According to the company, search results are not favored by private brands.

Five members of Congress wrote last week to Andy Jassy (Amazon CEO) accusing him and his top executives of misleading Congress about Amazon’s business practices.

U.S. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren was a vocal critic of Amazon and called for the company’s dissolution after the report. Meanwhile, in India, an organization representing many brick-and mortar retailers asked the government for action to stop Amazon.