On Tuesday, Spain’s antitrust watchdog said that it had fined Amazon and Apple a total of 194.1 million euros, which is equivalent to $218.03 million. The fines were levied because the antitrust authority believes that Amazon and Apple colluded to limit the online sale of devices from Apple and competitors in Spain.
Amazon and Apple fined according to a statement released by the watchdog known as CNMC, the two contracts that were signed by the firms on October 31, 2018, one of which granted Amazon the position of authorized Apple dealer, contained anti-competitive elements that had an effect on the online market for electronic products in Spain.
Apple was penalized 143.6 million Euros, while Amazon was hit with a fine of 50.5 million Euros. There is a two-month window for the two corporations to file an appeal of the ruling.
Both Apple and Amazon have independently announced, through their respective spokespeople, that they intend to appeal the fines.
According to CNMC’s statement, “The two companies restricted, without any justification, the number of sellers of Apple products on the Amazon website in Spain.”
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According to the report, as a direct consequence of this change, more than ninety percent of the existing shops who were using Amazon’s market place to sell Apple devices had their access denied.
According to the regulator, Amazon also restricted the advertising that Apple’s competitors were permitted to display on its website when consumers looked for Apple items. This made it more difficult for merchants in the European Union who were situated in countries other than Spain to access clients in Spain.
According to the report, as a result of the partnership between the two titans in the technology industry, the cost of Apple products that are purchased online in Spain has increased.
“We reject the suggestion made by CNMC that Amazon benefits from excluding sellers from its market place,” a spokesman for Amazon said in an emailed statement. “Our business model hinges precisely on the success of the companies selling through Amazon,” the spokesperson said.
She also mentioned that purchasers of Apple products benefited from the transaction, and an increasing number of iPads and iPhones were sold at a discount.
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Apple has stated that the partnership with Amazon is intended to reduce the amount of fake goods that are offered on the internet. According to the statement made by the company, in the past it had to expend a significant amount of time and capital to issue hundreds of thousands of ‘take-down’ notifications in order to prevent the sale of counterfeited products.
In October, Reuters published a story on a case that was being filed in Italy that was comparable to the one that was being brought in Spain. They were initially threatened with fines of 200 million euros because of this move, but those charges were ultimately withdrawn.
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