Recently, Italian authorities announced a fine of 2 US technology giants, Amazon and Apple, a total of 225 million USD (more than 200 million EUR) for violations of antitrust laws.
Specifically, Italy’s antitrust watchdog has just fined Apple and Amazon more than 200 million euros (about 225 million USD) for allegedly cooperating to limit competition in the sale of Apple and Beats products.
Accordingly, in 2018, the two companies entered into an agreement that the agency said they prevented “official and unofficial” retailers of products from using Amazon.it. The deal resulted in a situation where only Amazon and a select few parties could sell their products, limiting the number of retailers and cross-border sales. This violated European Union rules, affecting price competition.
Authorities fined Amazon 68.7 million euros (about 77.3 million dollars) and Apple 134.5 million euros (about 151 million dollars). In addition, companies are also required to end restrictions so that retailers of genuine Apple and Beats products can access Amazon.it in a “non-discriminatory” manner.
Both Apple and Amazon have said they plan to appeal
“To ensure our customers are purchasing genuine products, we work closely with our agency partners, having a team of dedicated professionals around the world working with law enforcement, customs and merchants to ensure that only genuine Apple products are sold,” an Apple representative said, denying any actions that are considered wrong.
Meanwhile, Amazon said the company completely disagrees with the Italian authorities’ decision, calling the proposed fine “disproportionate and unreasonable”. An Amazon representative said: “Italian customers can find more of the latest Apple and Beats products on Amazon at more attractive prices and faster shipping.”
Competition and Antitrust Law of the European Union
In the policies of the European Union Competition Law, antitrust is considered the most important content in ensuring the freedom of operation and fair competition of enterprises in a unified market share.
In this regard, the European Commission has great authority to conduct investigations, including entering the premises of enterprises without prior notice to review the internal documents of enterprises. prosecute any business that violates the law and impose a fine of up to 10% of the total revenue of the business.
Although, the EU’s competition policy does not prevent the dominant position of enterprises. However, it clearly shows a view to preventing abuse of a dominant position such as under-selling acts to weaken competitors, or exclusive supply and distribution agreements to eliminate competitors. painting…
The main body responsible for enforcing EU competition policy is the European Commission. The Member States gave the Commission an important role in building and developing a single market and fighting for trade liberalization.
In implementing competition policy, the Commission has made this role very clear by preventing or approving business mergers or by investigating state subsidies in Member States.
In the context of this European official’s commitment to strengthen supervision of the technology sector, the watchdog has successively investigated exclusively large US technology companies. Authorities in Germany and Spain are also monitoring the investigation in Italy and conducting similar processes. Investigations are also carefully monitored to avoid monopolies of large companies.
Currently, more and more parties in the EU and the US are calling on Apple and Google to expand their access to the online application market, create a more competitive environment in the advertising field that is being overwhelmed by Facebook and Google, and create favorable conditions. Favorable conditions for third-party retailers to access the Amazon e-commerce platform.
You can see a list of Italy IP firms here.