The Italian Competition Authority, Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato, AGCM Italy fines Amazon and Apple about $228M over ‘Anti-Competitive Collaboration’.
According to one AGCM press release on July 22, 2020 the “Italian Competition Authority launched an investigation pursuant to Article 101 TFUE against the companies in the Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. groups.”
AGCM explained that these were procedures used in order to determine whether Apple and Amazon have entered into a competition-restricting agreement prohibiting the sale of Apple and Beats-branded products by electronics retailers who are not members of Apple’s official program and who, in any case, legitimately purchase the products from wholesalers and resell them on the retail market.
Amazon has been fined $77 million for anti-competitive collaboration, while Apple has been fined $151 million thus €134.5M (~$151M) for Amazon and €68.7M (~$77.3M) for Apple totaling about $228M.
Both companies must erase any restrictions on the sale of Apple and Beats products in the future. In defense, both companies have denied the allegations by AGCM Italy hence refused to pay fine.
