The National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC) has imposed on Apple the highest individual sanction in the history of Spain set by this body, with a total of 143.6 million euros, for restricting competition on the website of Amazon in Spain. The e-commerce giant has also been fined 50.1 million euros, the fourth highest individual fine. In total, the penalty for both companies amounts to 194.15 million euros.
In a statement, the CNMC explained yesterday that both companies agreed to include a series of clauses in the contracts that regulate Amazon’s conditions as an Apple distributor. This agreement would have affected the sale of Apple products and other brands on the Amazon website in Spain.
On the one hand, they unreasonably restricted the number of resellers of Apple products on the Amazon website in Spain and, on the other, they limited the advertising spaces where competing Apple products can be advertised on that same platform.
Finally, they would have limited the possibility of Amazon directing marketing campaigns to customers of Apple products on its website to offer them alternative products from other brands.
The sanction distributed among the companies of the Apple group is the highest individual fine that the Competition authorities in Spain have imposed on a company in its entire history.
Penalties are calculated based on the business volume of the offending companies. Until now, the ranking was led by Dragados (57.1 million), followed by Telefónica (57 million) and Renfe (49.9 million). The top 10 sanctions would be completed again by Telefónica (46.4 million), Vodafone (43.5 million), FCC (40.4 million), Prosegur (39.4 million), Mediaset (38.9 million), Iberdrola (38 .7 million) and Atresmedia (38.2 million), according to the study Systematic analysis of the public application of competition law by national authorities in Spain 2003-2022, prepared by Professor Francisco Marcos, from IE Law School . Some sanctions are under appeal and others have been annulled or reduced in court.
By records, the highest is that of the construction cartel, which sanctioned six of the main Spanish companies in this sector in 2022 with 203.6 million for altering infrastructure construction tenders for more than 25 years. That of Apple and Amazon, of 194.15 million, would occupy second place.
The third highest fine, of 171 million, was imposed in 2015 on 21 manufacturers and distributors of car brands in Spain and two consulting companies. In addition, the CNMC sanctioned eight manufacturers of adult diapers, their association and four executives in 2016 with 128.8 million euros for forming a cartel, and imposed another similar fine of 127.8 million euros in 2021 on the main companies of security, signaling and communications systems for the AVE network, medium distance and suburban trains in Spain.
It is followed by the amount of the resolution of the insurer cartel, which in 2019 resulted in a penalty of 120 million euros to six insurers for agreeing on prices. The other fines that exceeded 100 million were the one imposed in 2012 on three telecommunications companies for abuse of a dominant position in the sending of short text messages (SMS), which amounted to 119.9 million, and the 118 million that received 15 companies in 2019 for forming cartels for the distribution of public railway infrastructure tenders.
Both Apple and Amazon have announced that they will appeal the sanction. Sources from the iPhone manufacturer explain that the agreement was intended to combat the high rate of counterfeiting of its products in the Amazon marketplace. “We support our efforts to protect consumers [from the sale of counterfeit products],” a spokesperson said.
For its part, Amazon points out its “disagreement” with the fine, which will be appealed. “We reject the CNMC’s suggestion that Amazon benefits by excluding sellers from the store, since our business model is based precisely on the success of companies that sell through Amazon,” he said yesterday in a statement, in which he defended that the agreement has resulted in more catalogue, better offers and faster shipments.
Apple says it sent Amazon “hundreds” of notices to remove the fakes. However, despite time and resources, the problem still persisted. In this sense, he defends that the agreement significantly reduced the sale of counterfeit products in the Amazon marketplace.
The company considers that there is jurisprudence and precedents that support the limitation of the use of marketplaces to protect customers. The Italian competition authority fined Apple and Amazon 205 million euros for a similar agreement, a sanction that was annulled by an Italian regional administrative court last October.
