Word on the street says that to resolve antitrust probes that showed the ecommerce giant gave itself an unfair edge over competing retailers, Amazon has agreed to make significant changes to its business operations.

Amazon pledged to give competing sellers' products comparable prominence in the buy box, a prominent area of its website that boosts sales.

To compete with those merchants, the company also promised to avoid using ‘non-public data’ from independent sellers on its platform to generate insights about its own items.

“We are pleased that we have addressed the European Commission's concerns and resolved these matters," says Amazon.

The E.U.'s top antitrust watchdog has declared that the commission has accepted Amazon's undertakings, allowing the corporation to avoid a legal dispute that might have resulted in significant fines, amounting to up to 10 percent of its annual worldwide revenue.

According to the EU's competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager, “today's decision sets the rules that Amazon will need to play by in the future instead of Amazon determining these rules for all players on its platform”.

The seven-year agreement is only applicable to Amazon's business practices in Europe.

The agreement was reached after Amazon made concessions to end two EU antitrust investigations in July.

Following the commission's testing of those early recommendations and consultation with consumer advocacy organizations, publishers of books, and academics, Amazon improved them as part of the deal revealed this week.

“With these new rules, competing independent retailers, carriers and European customers will have more opportunities and choice”, says Vestager.