Amazon and Apple were sentenced to pay one total fine of 200 million euros in Italy, precisely 68.7 million for Amazon and 134.5 million for Apple, due to a violation of the rules on competition.
The whole is based on a agreement signed between the two companies, which would have been restrictive of competition: according to documents reported, an agreement had been signed between Apple and Amazon that “did not allow all legitimate resellers of genuine Apple and Beats products to operate on the marketplace amazon.it “, according to the Italian Competition Authority.
This is the conclusion of an investigation launched last year by the AGMC, thus confirming the suspicions that emerged at the beginning.
In practice, under this agreement, electronics retailers not adhering to Apple’s official program were effectively prohibited from selling Apple and Beats branded products through Amazon.
This would be confirmed by some of the clauses obtained from the collaboration agreement between Apple and Amazon dating back to 2018. Among these we find that some clarifications that “prohibited retailers official and unofficial Apple and Beats products to use Amazon.it, allowing the sale of Apple and Beats products in that marketplace only to Amazon and certain individuals chosen individually and in a discriminatory manner, “according to the AGMC report.
A deal discriminatory which limited free competition, in particular violating art. 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. The Italian Authority also requests the cessation of this conduct, in addition to the payment of the fine imposed on Apple and Amazon.
Recently, Apple has also come out against Europe’s call for a single charger as it “kills innovation and confuses users.” If nothing else, it has announced a self-service repair program, starting with iPhone 13 and 12.
#Amazon #Apple #million #fine #Italy #violations #competition