Retail giant Amazon is suing EU antitrust regulators after they allowed an Italian competition authority to carry out its own case against it.

This decision to sue comes several months after the European Commission launched an investigation into the criteria Amazon bases its selection of winners of its “buy box.”

The Buy Box is the display on a product detail page with the Add to Cart button that customers can use to add items to their shopping carts.

When a listed items appears as the default on the product page, users “win” the Buy Box, increasing their chances of selling the item.

Amazon argues that Italy's case should be part of the wider EU investigation and that splitting it up is not allowed under the law.

The Italian watchdog pursued its own case against Amazon over the way it selects sellers.

The retail giant took the case to the EU General Court in Luxembourg on Tuesday, requesting that it withdraw the decision to exclude Italy from the wider investigation, according to a court document.

The investigation will also explore whether the retailer gives preferential treatment to its own offers and marketplace sellers that use its logistics services, Reuters reported.

Italy’s investigation, launched in 2019, is about the same issue, but focuses on the Italian logistics market, said the news organisation.

Amazon said in a statement about the legal action: "When the European Commission decides to investigate a matter, European law says that national competition authorities cannot investigate the same topic. This did not occur in this instance, as the Commission’s opening decision attempts to exclude Italy. We will continue to cooperate fully with the Commission and Italian authority’s investigations."

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