The Italian Antitrust Authority (AGCM) imposed a $1.28 billion fine against Amazon for abuse of position to dominate the market. This is the second time Amazon has been fined by Italian authorities.
“Amazon holds a position of absolute dominance in the Italian brokerage services market, which allows it to promote its own logistics service called Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA),” AGCM wrote in a press release as quoted by Engadget.
According to the AGCM, Amazon must use Amazon's FBA service if they want access to key benefits like the Prime label, which in turn allows them to fully participate in the Black Friday shopping season and other important events.
"Amazon has prevented third-party sellers from associating the Prime label with offerings that are not managed by the FBA," an AGCM spokesperson said.
Authorities say access to those functions is critical to the seller's success. Also note that third-party sellers using FBAs are not subject to the same stringent performance requirements as non-FBA sellers.
Thus, they are less likely to be suspended from the platform if they fail to meet certain goals.
Lastly, it is mentioned that sellers using Amazon's logistics services are discouraged from offering their products on other online platforms, at least as much as they do on Amazon.
The AGCM said it imposed the hefty fine for taking Amazon's actions "very seriously" given their duration and effect.
In addition to the fine, the AGCM also demands that Amazon grant the privileges enjoyed by FBA sellers to all third-party sellers, provided they comply with other rules and laws.
It must define and publish those standards within one year, and its actions will be enforced by the monitoring trustee.
Last month, Amazon and Apple were fined $228 million in Italy for limiting sales of Beats to select retailers.
The European Union also fined Amazon USD 888 million for violating the GDPR data privacy laws. Other tech giants are also under scrutiny by EU authorities over data privacy.
In addition, recently, the European Union opened an antitrust investigation into Apple's App Store rules, particularly regarding commissions related to in-app purchases.
