Abuse of dominant position: mega-fine for Amazon in Italy – archyde

Amazon was fined Thursday a fine of 1.128 billion euros for “abuse of a dominant position” by the competition police in Italy, for discrimination against sellers who had not used its service logistics.

This is one of the biggest fines for practices deemed anti-competitive imposed in Europe on one of the American tech giants, in the sights of many authorities.

“Amazon has undermined competing operators” in electronic commerce by “favoring its own logistics department” which ships and delivers packages, the Italian antitrust found after an in-depth investigation.

“The abusive strategy adopted by Amazon is particularly serious, because it is likely to discourage, or even eliminate, competition in the markets concerned,” he said.

The American group expressed its “deep disagreement” with this sanction, against which it will present an appeal. For Amazon, “the fine and the proposed remedies are unjustified and disproportionate.”

The European Commission “collaborated closely” with the Italian competition authority in this investigation, commented one of its spokespersons, highlighting “an example of successful coordination”.

“What Amazon did is very typical of what the Gafa do” (Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple), “that is, use a dominant position to push a related activity, in this case the logistics services, “Pierre Zelenko, associate lawyer at Linklaters in Paris and specialist in competition law, told AFP.

In November, the American colossus of online distribution had already been imposed in Italy a sanction of 68.7 million euros for infringement of competition rules by restricting access to the Amazon platform of certain product resellers. Apple.

This behavior is all the more serious in the eyes of the Italian antitrust that “at least 70% of purchases of consumer electronics products in Italy” are made on Amazon.

– ‘To the detriment of competitors’ –

Amazon’s dominant position on the Italian market “has enabled it to promote its own logistics service … with sellers active on the Amazon.it platform to the detriment of competing operators,” the Italian authority ruled on Thursday.

According to her, sellers who do not use Amazon’s logistics service are excluded from a “set of benefits essential to gain visibility and better sales prospects.”

This strategy has “increased the gap between the power of Amazon and that of its competitors” in the Italian market, she continues.

The “record fine” can “really harm the giants of the web and put an end to reprehensible behavior”, welcomed the Italian association of consumers Codacons.

European countries have increased financial sanctions against American and Chinese digital heavyweights in recent months, in an effort to better regulate their activities.

Amazon was fined 746 million euros in Luxembourg in July for non-compliance with the new European regulations on the private data of Internet users, the heaviest financial penalty ever imposed under these rules.

– Boom in online sales –

The digital giants have been repeatedly singled out by the European Commission for practices deemed anti-competitive. Google has thus received heavy fines from the EU, a cumulative total of 8.25 billion euros.

A key committee of the European Parliament adopted in November a draft regulation on digital markets to better regulate the internet and put an end to abuses of power by groups in the sector.

The fine imposed on Thursday was calculated based on Amazon’s global turnover, more than 330 billion euros in 2020, explained the Italian antitrust, before adding that it was increased by 50 % to take into account its dominant position in the world market.

Amazon has been riding the boom in online commerce since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic but is struggling to recruit up to its needs and to obtain supplies.

The group posted $ 3.2 billion in net profit in the third quarter, a result halved compared to last year.

Nearly 1.5 million people worked for Amazon around the world at the end of September, or 30% more than a year ago, and the firm continues to hire hard to meet the ever-growing demand. .

bh / ngu