Italy's competition authority announced on Tuesday it will begin a preliminary investigation into whether Amazon abused its dominance in e-commerce and logistics services.

The watchdog said it will investigate five companies of the Amazon group: Amazon Services Europe, Amazon Europe Core, Amazon EU, Amazon Italia Services and Amazon Italia Logistica.

In press release, the Italian authority said it was specifically considering whether Amazon granted third-party vendors that participated in its own logistics service an advantage over other sellers not involved in the service.

Amazon is facing increasing regulatory scrutiny around the world over its dominance in the online shopping and search markets.