The National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC) has fined a total of 194.15 million euros to different companies of the Amazon and Apple groups for agreeing and executing certain restrictions on competition in the online market or ‘market place’ from Amazon that affect third-party resellers of Apple products and competing products of the apple firm.
As reported by the agency, both companies agreed in 2018 to sign two contracts in which they updated Amazon’s conditions as an authorized Apple distributor. The market supervisor points out that, in this way, only a series of distributors designated by Apple itself could sell Apple brand products through the Amazon website in Spain. As a consequence, “more than 90% of the resellers who had been using the Amazon website in Spain for the retail sale of Apple products were excluded from the main online market in Spain.”
The benefit of both technology giants with this agreement would be explained because, in addition to the drop in business from sellers not authorized by Apple on Amazon, Apple’s sales in the digital market were thus concentrated in Amazon itself.
Unauthorized Apple distributors, generally small-sized operators that do not have a direct commercial relationship with the iPhone manufacturer but that sell their products with their consent and that were the most active on the Amazon website in Spain, were thus prevented from making offers, as if it happened with the products of other competitors such as Samsung The competitive pressure on prices on said website eased and “an increase in the relative prices paid by consumers for the purchase of Apple products in said online market in Spain was observed “.
Lastly, they limited the possibility of Amazon directing marketing campaigns to customers of Apple products on its website in Spain to offer them competing products from other brands. The fine for the two companies is distributed with a greater penalty for Apple and its companies, which will have to face a penalty of 143.6 million euros and Amazon with 50.5 million euros.
Amazon “disagrees” with the CNMC’s decision and plans to appeal it. It also rejects the suggestion made by the entity that it benefits by excluding sellers from its store, since its business model “is based precisely on the success of companies that sell through Amazon, many of which are SMEs “.
Amazon sources point out that, as a result of the agreement with Apple, the catalog of products such as the iPad has multiplied by five on its website, where there are also increases in other devices from the apple firm. The agreement also made the number of purchases of newly launched technology products, such as the iPhone or iPad, up to 89 times higher than in a previous comparable period.
In a similar vein, Apple justifies the agreement it reached with the technology within the protection of users against counterfeit products, which until the date of the agreements was high by the standards of the Cupertino company in the Amazon marketplace. “We plan to appeal the Court’s decision before the Spanish National Court,” says a company spokesperson.
This is not the first fine that the two companies have received for this series of agreements, which, in addition to Spain, were closed in some of the main world markets such as the United States, the United Kingdom, India, Japan, France or Italy… Precisely, the transalpine country was a pioneer in penalizing these practices and filed an initial fine of 184 million euros, which was later reduced to 173 million euros.
The fine was finally annulled in October 2022 by an Italian court. However, the decision was made due to a procedural error by the country’s competition authority, which, in the court’s opinion, did not give the parties enough time to defend themselves against the accusations.
For this reason, it is uncertain to predict the judicial course of the appeal of the technological companies. In this same procedure, which was opened at the end of 2021, Apple already filed an appeal for the terms established by the CNMC to access the room in which the confidential data of the file was consulted and which was dismissed.
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