Japan's competition regulator raided Amazon's offices in the country on Tuesday on suspicion that the American e-commerce giant was "abusing its dominant position" to force sellers to lower their prices, according to a source familiar with the case.

The source indicated, in confirmation of press information, that the Japanese Fair Trade Commission, which is responsible for enforcing anti-monopoly rules in the archipelago, raided Amazon’s headquarters in Japan.

This is the third investigation targeting the company due to possible anti-competitive practices. This time, the authority is focusing on the “Buy Box” feature, which is a highly desirable feature on the “Amazon.co.jp” website that allows products to be clearly highlighted.

This feature leads to intense competition between many sellers who display the same product on the platform and consider their appearance on this site “a matter of life or death,” according to what the informed source told Agence France-Presse.

The source, who requested to remain anonymous, explained, “We have been told that having the ‘buy box’ feature makes a big difference in sales.”

However, according to this source, Amazon, which is keen to maintain its superiority over competing e-commerce platforms, is accused of pushing sellers to lower their prices on pain of forcing them to abandon their appearance in the “Buy Box” feature in the event of rejection.

The American group is also accused of forcing sellers to use its internal logistics services for packaging, order processing, and shipping.

The same source concluded that these tactics may fall under the category of “abuse of dominant position” and “transactions subject to restrictive conditions,” which are prohibited by Japanese antitrust law.

When contacted by Agence France-Presse, Amazon and its Japanese branch were not immediately available to respond.