Federal regulators in Germany have warned Amazon that the company could be running afoul of the country's competition laws, citing pricing controls that limit the visibility of some sellers' products.

A preliminary assessment released by Germany's Federal Cartel Office (FCO) on June 2 found that Amazon's algorithms will deprioritize sellers in search results, and exclude them from advertising, if products are flagged as having prices that are either too high, or "not competitive." The FCO also asserted that Amazon's pricing controls are based on "non-transparent marketplace rules," and unfairly interfere with the freedom of sellers to set prices.

"Since Amazon competes directly with other marketplace retailers on its platform, influencing competitors’ pricing, even in the form of price caps, is fundamentally questionable from a competition perspective," FCO President Andreas Mundt said.

In a statement to CNBC, a spokesperson for Amazon said that the company strongly disagrees with the FCO's findings, and that if the retailer is forced to change its pricing controls, it would be "bad for customers and selling partners."

Amazon's pricing and data practices have been under scrutiny for years in both the EU and United States. In 2022, the company reached a settlement with the EU to address allegations that Amazon had given preferential treatment to its own retail business over unaffiliated sellers. A year later, 17 states joined with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to file a lawsuit accusing Amazon of illegally inflating prices and stifling the reach of sellers offering lower prices than the company's in-house retail brand. The FTC's lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial in late 2026.