Italy: Fine against Amazon reduced to 752.4 million euros
The Italian antitrust authority AGCM has significantly reduced the fine against the US group Amazon. This was preceded by a court ruling.
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The Italian competition authority AGCM has reduced the fine against the US online retailer Amazon from 1.1 billion to around 752.4 million euros. This is evident from a weekly report from the Italian authority. The competition authority is reacting to a ruling by the administrative court of the Lazio region from last September.
Originally, the AGCM had already imposed the multi-billion euro fine against Amazon in December 2021. The fine was one of the highest penalties ever imposed on a US tech company. Amazon subsequently appealed the decision. The company argued at the time that the penalty was unjustified and disproportionate.
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The background to the legal dispute was a distortion of competition due to preferential treatment of the company's own logistics service, “Fulfillment by Amazon” (FBA). According to the Italian competition authority's view from 2021, Amazon had abused its dominant market position in logistics services to link exclusive benefits with the use of its delivery service. For example, sellers on the Amazon marketplace only received the coveted “Prime” label if they used FBA. Only with the label was it possible to participate in special promotions such as Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Furthermore, less strict performance requirements were imposed on FBA customers. With these violations of Article 201 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, Amazon had harmed competitors offering comparable logistics services, the antitrust authority ruled.
Administrative Court Confirms Distortion of Competition
Last September, the Lazio Administrative Court confirmed the findings of the Italian competition authority. At the same time, the court overturned the 50 percent increase in the penalty imposed by the AGCM. This was reported by the Italian news agency ANSA last September. Amazon is a company whose entire worldwide turnover is particularly high in relation to the value of the sales affected by the unlawful preferential treatment, the court reasoned. The value of the damage caused was therefore comparatively low compared to Amazon's total turnover.
The competition authority AGCM followed the administrative court's ruling with the official announcement of a reduced fine of 752.4 million euros against Amazon.
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