Amazon.com (AMZN.O) and Apple Inc (AAPL.O) have been fined a total of more than 200 million euros ($225 million) by Italy’s antitrust watchdog for alleged anticompetitive cooperation in the sale of Apple and Beats items. The authority released a statement noting that tech giants violated European Union rules and affected competition on prices.
According to a report by Aljazeera, Only a few resellers were authorized to sell Apple and Beats products on Amazon under the terms of a 2018 agreement between the firms. The AGCM began its antitrust investigation in 2020 when they searched the offices of both companies. According to the regulators, the two businesses agreed to prohibit resellers of Apple-owned Beats products on Amazon’s Italian website in 2018.
Amazon was fined 68.7 million euros and Apple was fined 134.5 million euros by the regulator, which ordered the businesses to remove limitations on retailers selling genuine Apple and Beats products on Amazon.
Both Apple and Amazon have stated that they intend to appeal the penalty. Apple said in a statement that “To ensure our customers purchase genuine products, we work closely with our reseller partners and have dedicated teams of experts around the world who work with law enforcement, customs, and merchants to ensure only genuine Apple products are being sold,”.
Amazon stated the Italian authority’s decision was “disproportionate and unreasonable,” and that its part of the proposed penalties (€68.7 million) was “disproportionate and unfair.” The agreement in question “more than doubled” the catalog of products available to Italian customers, according to the company, and resulted in “better deals and faster shipment.”
Amazon has had a number of run-ins with regulators for prioritizing its own products in its own stores over those from third parties, which is a common complaint leveled against monolithic technological platforms. The AGCM’s findings suggest that the shopping platform might be manipulated to benefit specific products and vendors.