Amazon has been fined more than a billion euros by Italy’s antitrust watchdog, the Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM) on Thursday for abusing its dominant market position in Italy and breaking EU law.
The company is accused of using its dominance in the online shopping world to steer Italian sellers into using its logistics service, Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA).
The fine is one of the largest levied by a single nation in the EU as part of a years-long battle over online antitrust issues.
Imposing the fine of more than 1.1 billion euros (1.3 billion dollars) on the technology giant, AGCM said Amazon had abused its position as an intermediary for logistics services on its own platform and, in so doing, had harmed other service providers and suppliers.
According to the AGCM statement, the specific issue at stake was the Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) service, where the company offers to take over shipping logistics for sellers.
According to AGCM, the use of the service gave sellers advantages elsewhere on the sales platform, including better customer visibility and the possibility of labeling their products part of Amazon Prime, something seen as crucial for driving sales on Amazon’s Italian website.
According to the competition authority, Amazon also applied stricter quality controls on sellers who did not use the FBA service, which in some cases led to accounts being blocked.
Overall, Amazon had harmed competing logistics companies by effectively forcing them to use their service, the authority added.
At the same time, it said, other sales platforms were also negatively impacted when sellers were effectively forced to use Amazon to ensure sales.
In a statement (via Engadget), the company said: “We strongly disagree with the decision of the Italian Competition Authority (ICA) and we will appeal. The proposed fine and remedies are unjustified and disproportionate.”
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