The European Union has launched a formal investigation into Amazon... over allegations it uses independent retailers' data to get an illegal edge when selling its own products.<br />The probe will look into the U.S. e-commerce giant's business practices to see if it has broken EU anti-trust rules.<br />The formal investigation comes after a preliminary investigation launched last year found Amazon was using "competitively sensitive information" from independent retailers.<br />Such investigations are aimed at preventing tech giants from abusing their market dominance to kill off their competition.<br />If Amazon is found to have breached EU anti-trust rules, it could be fined up to 23 billion U.S. dollars.<br />
