E-commerce giants and major retailers increasingly integrate logistics into their core operations, but competition concerns can arise.
Published 16 January 2026
Amazon’s fulfilment network and proprietary delivery systems exemplify this integration trend. While vertical integration can deliver efficiencies and improve service quality, it also raises antitrust concerns. When platforms bundle marketplace access with logistics services, smaller carriers may consider themselves squeezed out, and independent retailers can believe they face self-preferencing risks. Competition authorities are scrutinising these dynamics. The European Commission’s investigations into platform behaviour signal a growing willingness to intervene where integration distorts competition. For logistics providers, this means ensuring that partnerships and exclusivity arrangements do not cross the line into foreclosure of rivals.
Decisions and policy papers to date, supported by the weight of academic opinion, indicate that the potential existence of foreclosure is a real risk. Yet the counterview continues also to exist. For example, it is argued that a vertically integrated platform would favour its own logistics services, but the counter-suggestion is that third party sellers often also choose the same integrated logistics services, rather than those of a third party, because the platform’s services are proven to be better. By the same token, the platform has a strong interest in a highly efficient logistics ecosystem, often using the services of third parties to ensure high reliability. As such, the platform rewards the best logistics operators with business. As a final example, the logistics market, in particular B2C is growing strongly and while Amazon, Deutsche Post DHL and La Poste Group together share about a third of the B2C parcel delivery business in Europe, there are many other players and the picture in relation to B2B parcel delivery is very different, with Amazon largely being absent. That the EU Commission’s abuse of dominance case against Amazon ended by Amazon offering voluntary commitments, which the Commission accepted, is indicative of the practical if not formally settled nature and effect of vertical integration in this sector.