The European Commission announced today that it has accused Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) of using data it collects from third-party retailers on its platform to benefit its own business, in violation of antitrust regulations. The enforcement arm of the European Union also said it has opened a second investigation into whether Amazon gives preferential treatment to its own products or to those independent sellers that pay to use Amazon logistics and delivery services. Image source: Getty Images. The commission began investigating in July 2019 Amazon's dual role as both retailer and marketplace based on data that it said showed the e-commerce giant was using sensitive data it collected from merchant partners and abusing it for its own benefit. It also started looking into just how Amazon selected the winners to appear in its Buy Box, the prominent product displays that appear on the platform from which "a vast majority of transactions" are made, the European Commission says. The commission's executive vice president, Margrethe Vestager, released a statement saying, "Our concern is that Amazon may artificially push retailers to use its own related services, which locks them deeper into Amazon's ecosystem." The EU, which has less reverence for free trade and competition than the U.S., has pursued numerous antitrust cases against U.S.-based technology firms including Alphabet's (NASDAQ: GOOG)(NASDAQ: GOOGL) Google, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), and Facebook (NASDAQ: FB). It has sued Google three times over its search functions and its AdSense business, fining it over $8 billion in total, while Apple was slapped with a $15 billion tax bill from Ireland that was later overturned by the courts. Facebook faces a ban over its data transfer policies. U.S. regulators, though, have also begun their own antitrust investigations into big tech. Find out why Amazon is one of the 10 best stocks to buy now Motley Fool co-founders Tom and David Gardner have spent more than a decade beating the market. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* Tom and David just revealed their ten top stock picks for investors to buy right now. Amazon is on the list -- but there are nine others you may be overlooking. Click here to get access to the full list! *Stock Advisor returns as of October 20, 2020 John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Rich Duprey has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), Amazon, Apple, and Facebook and recommends the following options: short January 2022 $1940 calls on Amazon and long January 2022 $1920 calls on Amazon. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Source