Italy's antitrust and competition authority AGCM said it has fined Amazon and Apple a total of over EUR 200 million for alleged anti-competitive cooperation in the sale of Apple products, including headphones from the latter’s Beats Electronics subsidiary. Following a probe that included a raid at the Italian offices of both companies, the authority said an agreement signed on 31 October 2018 “barred official and unofficial resellers of Apple and Beats products from using Amazon.it, allowing the sale of those products in that marketplace only to Amazon and to selected parties in a discriminatory manner.”
The conduct breached article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, resulting in fines of EUR 134.5 million for Apple and EUR 68.7 million for Amazon. The watchdog also ordered the companies to end the restrictions and allow resellers of genuine Apple and Beats products to access Amazon.it in a non-discriminatory manner.
