Apple and Amazon are fined for restricting competition – 07/18/2023 – Market

Spain’s CNMC (National Market and Competition Commission) fined the US giants Apple and Amazon a total of €194 million (US$218 million or R$1.05 billion) on Tuesday (18) for ” restrict competition” in the distribution of apple products in the Spanish branch of the e-commerce giant.

The two technology giants are accused by Spain’s CNMC of having restricted access to the Amazon platform to some resellers of Apple products through two contracts signed in October 2018.

The clauses of the contracts indicated that “only a series of distributors designated by Apple itself could sell branded products through the Amazon website in Spain”, detailed the statement from the agency, in charge of guaranteeing competition rules in the country.

In addition, the agreements “limited the possibility for brands competing with Apple to acquire advertising space on Amazon’s website in Spain to advertise their products”, which harms “directly consumers, since it limits their ability to discover new brands and/or alternative products to Apple’s,” the note added.

The CNMC, which estimates that these practices managed to “change the sales dynamics of Apple products on the Amazon website in Spain”, says that the fine for Apple reaches 143.6 million euros (R $ 779.1 million), while Amazon will have to pay 50.5 million euros (R$ 273.9 million).

To AFP, Apple said it intended to appeal the decision and said it implemented these measures with Amazon to “protect users” from the risks of counterfeiting.

Apple’s objective is “to protect users from risks related to the safety and quality of counterfeit products”, said the group, which with these measures ensures that it has managed to “effectively reduce counterfeiting”.

Like other tech giants, Apple and Amazon have received different European sanctions in recent years for failing to respect competition law.

In Italy, Amazon was fined in December 2021 by 1.1 billion euros (R$ 5.9 billion). Apple was penalized €371.6 million (R$2.01 billion) in October 2022.

In March 2022, the European Union established new legislation to repress abuses of the dominant position of digital giants. The goal is to act before abusive behavior destroys competition.