Amazon and Apple have been fined $225 million in the latest antitrust case

Apple has been dealing with antitrust lawsuits for a while now, and the latest is from Italy’s antitrust authority. The watchdog has fined Amazon and Apple $225 million for kicking out select Apple product resellers from Amazon’s platform. The agreement between the two tech giants goes back to 2018. It has forced certain retailers to stop using amazon.it to sell Apple and Beats devices. The watchdog stated that this is a violation of the European Union rules that’s affecting the pricing competition.

According to Reuters, the Italian authority has fined Amazon and Apple 68.7 million and 134.5 million euros respectively. The authority has also ordered the two giants to end this restriction and allow genuine Apple product retailers to sell on Amazon. Apple has argued by stating:

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.

Amazon stated that the fine was “disproportionate and unjustified”. It added:

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.

The two companies have said that they plan to appeal against the fines.

This contract decreases the number of fake Apple products on Amazon. However, it is also unfair towards genuine resellers who used to depend on the platform to sell Apple goods. We will have to wait and see how they will eventually close this case.

Do you agree that Amazon and Apple should pay a fine for excluding select resellers? Let us know in the comments section below.

The post Amazon and Apple have been fined $225 million in the latest antitrust case appeared first on xda-developers.

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