- Amazon is being fined $1.2bn by Italy’s anti-trust regulator for abusing its market dominance by pushing its own logistics service, Fulfilment by Amazon.
- “Amazon has thus prevented third-party sellers from associating the Prime label with offers not managed with FBA,” those functions being “crucial” for sellers.
- It’s the second fine against Amazon from Italy in just a matter of weeks after both Amazon and Apple were fined $228m for restricting Beats headphone sales to select retailers.
The BBC writes:
“Amazon has been fined $1.2bn (£910,000) by Italy’s anti-trust regulator.
It said the tech giant had abused its market dominance by promoting its own logistics service, Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA).
It claimed companies had to use the FBA service to access key benefits such as selling products with Prime delivery with no extra cost to customers, and participation in Black Friday sales.
Amazon said it “strongly disagreed” with the decision, and would appeal.
The regulator ruled that Amazon put third-party sellers at a disadvantage by requiring use of its own service to access key benefits and events.
“Amazon has thus prevented third-party sellers from associating the Prime label with offers not managed with FBA,” it said.
The regulator insisted that access to such functions is “crucial” for sellers to achieve success on Amazon’s Marketplace…”
See full story here.
Categories: Business, Economy, International, Tech
Economic Left 
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