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Apple Fined $150M+ By Italian Watchdog for Anti-Competitive Cooperation With Amazon

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Apple and Amazon were today fined a total of more than 200 million euros ($225 million) by Italy's antitrust authority for alleged anti-competitive cooperation in the sale of Apple and Beats products, reports Reuters.

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The fines are the culmination of an investigation that began last year over allegations that the two companies had been blocking the sale of Apple and Beats devices to resellers in order to stifle competition.

The Italian watchdog today said contractual provisions of a 2018 agreement between the two companies meant only selected resellers were allowed to sell the products on Amazon's Italian store, which was in violation of EU rules and affected competition on prices.

Amazon was fined 68.7 million euros ($77.3 million), while Apple received a fine of 134.5 million euros ($151.2 million). The watchdog also ordered the companies to end the restrictions to give retailers of genuine Apple and Beats products access to the Italian Amazon web store in a "non-discriminatory manner." Both Apple and Amazon said they plan to appeal against the fines.
"To ensure our customers purchase genuine products, we work closely with our reseller partners and have dedicated teams of experts around the world who work with law enforcement, customs and merchants to ensure only genuine Apple products are being sold," Apple said, denying any wrongdoing.

In a separate statement Amazon said it strongly disagreed with the decision of the Italian authority and that the proposed fine was "disproportionate and unjustified."

"We reject the suggestion that Amazon benefits by excluding sellers from our store, since our business model relies on their success. As a result of the agreement, Italian customers can find the latest Apple and Beats products on our store, benefiting from a catalogue that more than doubled, with better deals and faster shipping," Amazon said.
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This isn't the first investigation into Apple by Italy's antitrust regulator. A previous probe looked into the company for iPhone battery slowdowns, which the antitrust watchdog said was a form of planned obsolescence and subsequently slapped Apple with a 10 million euro fine.

Article Link: Apple Fined $150M+ By Italian Watchdog for Anti-Competitive Cooperation With Amazon
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2021/11/23/apple-amazon-fined-italian-watchdod/
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SnakeEater1993 said:
waiting for fanboys to defend apple on this matter....
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if true, this kind of anti-competitive behaviour really stinks. It’s not like these tech giants are exactly short of money.

I don’t see this kind of thing going away anytime soon, because corporations are absolutely duty bound to do anything in their power to maximise returns to shareholders.

If, on the other hand, we lived in a world where corporations are duty bound to improve the lot of society and the environment…
 
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All of these so called 'fines' are just nonsense - how often do you think Apple (or Amazon, or any other tech giant) actually end up paying them? OF COURSE they're appealing it, and will continue to do so ad infinitum and inevitably the respective governments will let it go eventually as the cost to the taxpayer will ultimately exceed the cost of the imposed 'fine' in the first place. The solution is simple - if you don't like Amazon, Apple or anyone else monopolising markets, stop using them.
 
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MauiPa said:
I’m not seeing the issue. Can fiat control distribution channels for its products in Italy? Does Italy have open access laws where anybody can sell anything? I must be overlooking something obvious
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The thing is that Amazon wouldn’t let any reseller not authorised from Apple to sell products on Amazon.

Let’s say that MediaWorld a big retail chain in Italy, Apple partner with genuine Apple products, decided to expand for whatever reason and sell on Amazon. Based on the allegations if Apple is not okey with it, Amazon than wouldn’t let MediaWorld sell on their platform.
This is not only against the Italian law but as mentioned by the Reuters article is against EU’s anticompetitive laws.
 
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ksec said:
Apple should pull out of the Italian Market.

It is actually funny because once you keep mentioning what they want, pulling out of every market they mentioned. They will then stop mentioning it themselves.
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But speak for yourself!

In Italy Apple is very well received, and Apple itself believes in it since this year it gave vent to the launch of HomePod mini, Siri for AppleTV, Fitness + and the new maps that you have always enjoyed in the USA!

There are nations that do even worse, so we are not focusing on Italy, since countries like Ireland, France and Brazil do even worse!
 
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SnakeEater1993 said:
waiting for fanboys to defend apple on this matter....
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I'm defending both Amazon and Apple here.

Amazon should be free to use almost any criteria they want for who is allowed as a supplier to their store. It's only beginning to be problematic if Amazon has a extreme market domination in Italia like >80% for consumer electronics.

Even if Amazon was the only place to get Apple products in Italy it should still be allowed, because consumers who wanted to save money could go Windows or Android.

Again, Apple, with its small market share should be allowed to do almost anything with restrictions and exclusivity.
 
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MangoAvocado said:
The thing is that Amazon wouldn’t let any reseller not authorised from Apple to sell products on Amazon.

Let’s say that MediaWorld a big retail chain in Italy, Apple partner with genuine Apple products, decided to expand for whatever reason and sell on Amazon. Based on the allegations if Apple is not okey with it, Amazon than wouldn’t let MediaWorld sell on their platform.
This is not only against the Italian law but as mentioned by the Reuters article is against EU’s anticompetitive laws.
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I want it to be legal.

It's certainly legal in Norway which is also bind by EU's competition law.
Here the biggest producer of milk and cheese had an exlusivity clause in a contract with one of the largest super markets chains, resulting in the super market chain throwing out all the smaller competitors for milk, butter, cheese etc.

It was deemed legal in the end.
 
ikir said:
I'm Italian and our authorities are often completely incompetente as you can read about "planned obsolescence" when iOS keeps your battery working even if you are clueless.
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How is not planned obsolescence if you don’t tell the user what’s happening and why the phone is so slow, when you and your software make it slower?
I get the end goal and I agree with it, but not informing the user it’s just ****** behaviour to push your agenda and make the user buy a new and more importantly faster phone when they were just fine with what they had.
ikir said:
Italians are cheap bastards (I'm Italian). hypocrisy is everywhere.
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Vedo che gli iPhone da 1200/1300€ rimangono lì e non li compra nessuno /s
Ma cosa vai dicendo?
 
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Apple has NO competition in "App Discovery".

As such, third-party "App Discovery" App Stores are the key.

We could see the first here in the States on Dec 9th, irrespective as to whether Apple gets a Stay from the 9th Circuit (regarding the Epic vs Apple court battle ruling) !
 
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ikir said:
Italians are cheap bastards (I'm Italian). hypocrisy is everywhere.
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Italian speaking badly about italians.... you should start loving your country and made it better.

One thing is being "honest" another is a destroying attitude.

MangoAvocado said:
How is not planned obsolescence if you don’t tell the user what’s happening and why the phone is so slow, when you and your software make it slower?
I get the end goal and I agree with it, but not informing the user it’s just ****** behaviour to push your agenda and make the user buy a new and more importantly faster phone when they were just fine with what they had.

Vedo che gli iPhone da 1200/1300€ rimangono lì e non li compra nessuno /s
Ma cosa vai dicendo?
Click to expand...

Completely agree with you, right solution with wrong communication by Apple, which destroyed their positive meaning.
 
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LV426 said:
I don’t see this kind of thing going away anytime soon, because corporations are absolutely duty bound to do anything in their power to maximise returns to shareholders.
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Not illegally though...
 
I’m not a huge defender of Amazon, but the challenges they face are real. Having lived in Asia, the online sales platforms there are like the Wild West. Getting a genuine branded product is a crap shoot at best on some of these online aggregator sites. Amazon has to do better to allow free and fair competition, but we also don’t want a free-for-all with no regulation either.
 
ksec said:
Apple should pull out of the Italian Market.
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Please no... it should just simply stop selling on Amazon. And any other reseller for what it's worth. Only stores and online and be done with it.

Yes I'm quite anti Amazon by the way. Now there's a spreading problem of "empty boxes" returns where the client get screwed, google it. They should stick to selling books like they did in the early days imo
 
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