Apple, Amazon Hit With More Than $225 Million of Antitrust Fines in Italy
November 23 2021 - 06:30AM
Dow Jones News
By Mauro Orru
Italy's competition watchdog issued more than $225 million in
fines to Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., saying they colluded to
exclude legitimate resellers of Apple and Beats products from
Amazon's Italian marketplace.
The Italian Competition Authority, or AGCM, said Tuesday that it
was fining Apple 134.5 million euros ($151.1 million) and Amazon
68.7 million euros ($77.2 million), ordering the U.S. technology
giants to allow all resellers of genuine Apple and Beats products
on amazon.it.
The fines, the latest in a series of antitrust probes and
decisions against big tech firms in Europe, stem from a 2018
agreement between Apple and Amazon that let the companies pick
which resellers of Apple and Beats products were allowed on
amazon.it and ban others, AGCM said.
The agreement also hindered cross-border sales as it effectively
allowed Apple and Amazon to restrict the number of allowed
resellers and discriminate against them on a geographical basis in
breach of European Union treaties, AGCM added.
Apple and Amazon said they would appeal the decision, and
defended their 2018 agreement.
"The proposed fine is disproportionate and unjustified," Amazon
said in a statement. "We reject the Italian Competition Authority's
suggestion that Amazon benefits by excluding sellers from our
store, since our business model relies on their success."
Amazon said that the catalogue of Apple products at least
doubled on Amazon's website as a result of the agreement, with most
notable increases of product lines such as iPhone, iPad and Apple
Watch.
In a separate statement, Apple said it believed it had done
nothing wrong, and planned to appeal the fine. "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," Apple said.
The Italian case comes as big tech companies face growing
antitrust scrutiny in Europe, with similar probes currently under
way in Spain and Germany.
Germany's Federal Cartel Office said in June that it would look
at Apple's influence on cross-market competition in a probe that
will focus on the magnitude of the company's technological and
financial resources, access to data as well as its App Store, and
how it influences the business activities of third parties.
Apple is currently facing charges from the EU for allegedly
abusing its control over the distribution of music-streaming apps
by requiring rival apps to use Apple's in-app payments system to
sell digital content. The case stems from a complaint by Spotify
Technology SA.
In July, Amazon.com was fined EUR746 million by an EU privacy
regulator for violations related to its advertising, the
largest-ever fine under the EU's data-protection law.
Beats, the audio brand acquired by Apple in 2014, makes consumer
headphones, earphones and speakers.
Write to Mauro Orru at mauro.orru@wsj.com; @MauroOrru94
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 23, 2021 06:15 ET (11:15 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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