Apple and Amazon fined over ‘anti-competitive collusion’

Apple is regularly in the news due to repeated antitrust violations. This time around, the company has been accused anti-competitive behaviour in Italy, with authorities also claiming collusion between Apple and Amazon to supress competition. As a result, both parties have been ordered to pay a $225 million fine.

Italy's antitrust authority has fined Apple and Amazon over €200 million (roughly $225 million USD) for anti-competitive cooperation. Investigators found that Apple and Amazon included illegal contractual provisions in a 2018 agreement, which meant that only selected resellers could sell Apple and Beats products on Amazon Italy.

The fine is split up with Apple paying the bigger share. Apple has been fined €134.5 million, while Amazon has been fined €68.7 million. So far, both companies have confirmed plans to appeal against the fines.

As reported by Reuters, Apple and Amazon “strongly disagree” with the fines. On its end, Apple says that it “works closely” with reseller partners to ensure customers are purchasing genuine products, while Amazon says that its agreement with Apple resulted in “better deals and faster shipping”.

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KitGuru Says: Apple and Amazon both have plans to appeal, so this could be dragged out for a while. With that in mind, we'll keep an eye out for further updates. 

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