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

randyhudson said:
If MediaWorld is an Apple partner, wouldn't it imply they are authorized and thus not have any problems listing products on Amazon?
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From what I understand from the initial document from the authority containing the original complaint, there are 3 kinds of distributors:

  • Apple Authorized Resellers: they have a contract with Apple and get the goods directly from Apple or from other wholesale distirbutors.
  • Apple Authorized Premium Resellers: like the Apple Authorized Resellers but with additional promotional campaigns and customer support.
  • Non-authorized Resellers: they are not involved in Apple's distribution programs but legitimately re-sell Apple products they purchase from wholesale distributors.
The complaint is that the deal with Amazon prevents the non-authorized resellers, which otherwise are legit sellers, from selling on Amazon. According to the initial document, such limitation is unjustified and stifles competition in violation of EU regulations.
 
coso said:
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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Best way to shop period. No more dealing with supermarkets and people.
 
gfbio said:
As an Apple enthusiast, I can't really understand how consumers can defend Apple and Amazon here.
It's against the consumer's own economic interest to support such an agreement. If the point were to fight non-genuine products, Amazon could simply highlight with some blue checkbox the certified resellers, and ban those selling counterfeit products, if any.
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Emotions and feeling. People today tend to avoid facts if they don’t like them
 
KindJamz said:
Why would a corporation have to be responsible for improving society. Shouldnt that be the responsibility of the government.
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It's called being ethical.
And nobody mentioned "being responsible". It would be better if corporations, as I said, were duty bound to do the right thing. Certainly better than having shareholders' interests first and foremost.

Remember Google had a mission statement "Don't be evil". You don't hear that one much these days.
 
mi7chy said:
How about a fine for price fixing 16GB models of Macbook M1? Only 8GB model is ever on sale and sold outside of Apple.
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You’d think that, but I actually saw the 16GB model on sale at my local Unieuro

I thought it was a typo but I clicked “About this Mac” and it was indeed the 16GB model, not sure why Amazon doesn’t have it… ?
 
yabeweb said:
They said the same thing about Korea, China and a bunch of other countries.

If they did leave each country they had a fine, Apple would collapse, so....

Apple leaving a market for not following the rules would be like the kid taking the ball and going home..
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I don't believe "they" said it about China, but certainly about Korea.
 
gfbio said:
As an Apple enthusiast, I can't really understand how consumers can defend Apple and Amazon here.
It's against the consumer's own economic interest to support such an agreement. If the point were to fight non-genuine products, Amazon could simply highlight with some blue checkbox the certified resellers, and ban those selling counterfeit products, if any.
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It's a defence for the free market where government regulations should be kept at a minimum, especially for unimportant products which Apple sells and there exist so many alternatives.
 
LV426 said:
It's called being ethical.
And nobody mentioned "being responsible". It would be better if corporations, as I said, were duty bound to do the right thing. Certainly better than having shareholders' interests first and foremost.

Remember Google had a mission statement "Don't be evil". You don't hear that one much these days.
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Don't be evil was actually only in their code of conduct (and still is, just a lot lower down). I don't think it was ever their mission statement (Google's mission statement is "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.")

But I do agree with the sentiment. Companies should at the very least be required to not make things worse, even if they don't necessarily have to make things better.
 
gfbio said:
It's plenty of local stores selling Apple products. I'm doubt each of these store has been authorized by Apple, so I guess that Apple products can be sold by any seller, provided (of course) that the origin of these products is legal.
Then why shouldn't the very same resellers sell the same products on Amazon?
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...because that should be up to Amazon as the owner. Free markets and property rights.

Here Amazon is forced to allow something they don't want to on their property.
 
bsolar said:
From what I understand from the initial document from the authority containing the original complaint, there are 3 kinds of distributors:

  • Apple Authorized Resellers
  • Apple Authorized Premium Resellers
  • Non-authorized Resellers
The complaint is that the deal with Amazon prevents the non-authorized resellers
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Why would someone want to purchase from a non-authorized seller? That’s like buying oranges from the random guy on street corner instead of at the store?
Isn’t that what we call “grey market” in the US?
 
That's good.
I'm glad Europe still has politicians not as corrupt as here in the US where all these tech companies need to do is slip a little cash under the table and suddenly there's a new law protecting them.
 
macsound1 said:
Why would someone want to purchase from a non-authorized seller? That’s like buying oranges from the random guy on street corner instead of at the store?
Isn’t that what we call “grey market” in the US?
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Because the price is better. There's nothing wrong with grey-market goods, companies just like to make them sound scary because it helps them keep prices high.

Oh, and yes, I'm 100% buying oranges from the corner stall guy over the supermarket option. Stall fruit is almost always better.
 
GtrDude said:
That's good.
I'm glad Europe still has politicians not as corrupt as here in the US where all these tech companies need to do is slip a little cash under the table and suddenly there's a new law protecting them.
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Most of these 'actions' come about because European companies slipped some cash under the table. It's cute you think otherwise.
 
hans1972 said:
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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That is what they are trying to avoid. Problem is that the buying power Amazon allows them to get products at a lower cost than other stores.
 
KindJamz said:
Best way to shop period. No more dealing with supermarkets and people.
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I prefer shopping in the official e-commerce of each brand. Often quite cheaper too. No one wants to see people or go to a physical shop OBVIOUSLY ?
 
SnakeEater1993 said:
waiting for fanboys to defend apple on this matter....
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Sure, I'll bite: counterfeit products with dubious quality are a real issue, especially with accessories. There was a time when you could be duped into getting a "cheap" AC adapter on Amazon's store that looked like a genuine Apple product but was garbage. So, Apple pulled products from Amazon altogether. Then, they eventually agreed to only allow vetted resellers.

Is that anticompetitive? Arguably, yes. Is it bad for the consumer? No, I don't think so.
 
coso said:
I prefer shopping in the official e-commerce of each brand. Often quite cheaper too. No one wants to see people or go to a physical shop OBVIOUSLY ?
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I’m a huge Amazon fan. Order today get it today or tomorrow. Prices are hard to beat. By from sold by Amazon only.

I never have to go and and deal with the public. Definitely a homebody.
 
LV426 said:
It's called being ethical.
And nobody mentioned "being responsible". It would be better if corporations, as I said, were duty bound to do the right thing. Certainly better than having shareholders' interests first and foremost.

Remember Google had a mission statement "Don't be evil". You don't hear that one much these days.
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Ethics and business dont go together. Business is there for one thing only. $$$$

How is google evil? The mine your data. They dont lie about it. They offer a killer package of software and services for this data. Works for everyone.

Now apple has fibbed about things before. Does that make them evil? Nah. It’s business

Morals and ethics. Lol.
 
boss.king said:
Because the price is better. There's nothing wrong with grey-market goods, companies just like to make them sound scary because it helps them keep prices high.
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To elaborate on this: typically a grey-market reseller imports products purchased wholesale from a country where the product is cheaper. This means the consumer can actually profit from globalization by getting a cheaper product sourced from somewhere else.

This is typically legal, but companies don't like it because they'd rather manufacture at the cheaper countries' prices, but sell at the developed countries' higher prices, netting a higher profit margin. That's as example the main reason for region-locked products.

Basically companies want to profit from globalization, but also want to prevent consumers from doing the same.
 
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