MADRID, July 18 — Spain’s competition watchdog said today it has slapped US tech giants Amazon and Apple with fines totalling €194 million (RM988 million) for collusion in the sale of products.
The two firms had agreed to limit the sale of Apple products on Amazon’s Spanish websites by third-party resellers “which restricted competition,” the regulator said in a statement.
Contractual provisions of a 2018 agreement between the companies meant only selected resellers picked by Apple were allowed to sell Apple products on Amazon.es, it added.
“Over 90 per cent of resellers who used Amazon’s website in Spain to sell Apple products were excluded from Spain’s main online market,” the statement said.
The move “drastically” reduced competition between resellers of Apple products on Amazon’s Spanish platform, it added.
The authority imposed a fine of €50.5 million on Amazon and €143.6 million on Apple.
Tech giants like Apple and Amazon have been fined several times in recent years in Europe for violating competition laws.
Italy hit Amazon with a fine of €1.1 billion in December 2021 for abusing its dominant market position while France slapped Apple with a fine of €371.6 million in October 2022. — AFP
