The Italian antitrust authority (AGCM, Italian for short) has fined Amazon € 1.13 billion in what is considered one of the largest fines imposed on the tech giant in Europe.
AGCM said in a statement that the American company abused its dominant position in the Italian intermediary market by opting to deploy its Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) logistics services for merchants on the Italian version of the e-commerce platform.
Respectively with authorityThe use of FBA was associated with a number of exclusive benefits, including the use of the Prime seal to increase visibility and increase sales on the Italian version of Amazon. In addition to the fine, AGCM intends to apply a number of corrective measures.
In response to the fine, Amazon indicates that it “strongly disagrees” with the position of the Italian authorities and will appeal this decision. in declarations in Reuters, the company that implements FBA is a “completely optional service” and that most sellers on Amazon don’t use it. “The fine and the proposed measures are unreasonable and disproportionate,” he emphasizes.
The European Commission has partnered with AGCM on this case to ensure consistency of its own investigations with Amazon. V first opened in July 2019, in order to verify whether the company is violating competition laws in the European Union by illegally collecting data from sellers.
Second, opened in November 2020, focuses on the possibility that Amazon provides incentives to sellers who use the technology’s logistics and delivery services.
This November the AGM already fined Amazon 68.7 million euros… In this case, which also resulted in a € 134.5 million fine for Apple, the department concluded that an agreement signed by the companies in 2018 laying down conditions for the distribution of the two brands’ products in the Italian Amazon store harmed consumers. that they began to receive the worst discounts on these products.
