- Judith Akatugba
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A representative for Amazon said on Thursday that the high court in Spain has deferred fines of 194 million euros ($209 million) that the regional antitrust agency had levied on the two tech giants in July, while they file an appeal.
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The watchdog, CNMC, penalized both Apple and Amazon for banding together to stop other dealers from reselling Apple products on Amazon’s Spanish websites.
Amazon was penalized 50.5 million euros and Apple was fined 143.6 million euros. Both businesses declared at the time that they would file an appeal.
According to an Amazon representative, the court’s decision to halt the payment is a component of the appeals process.
In July, Amazon announced that more discounts on Apple devices were available on Amazon’s websites as a result of the agreement with Apple.
The court’s decision to find in favor of the tech giants or against them is not anticipated by the suspension of the fine.
A representative for Apple did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
According to CNMC, anti-competitive conditions in a contract the two businesses struck in October 2018 that gave Amazon the authority to sell Apple products on its websites in Spain banned more than 90% of the current retailers from carrying Apple products on Amazon’s marketplace.
Following these agreements, the regulator said that Amazon also limited the ability of European Union merchants located outside of Spain to reach Spanish consumers and limited the kind of advertising that Apple’s rivals could run on their website when people looked for Apple products.
In Italy, a comparable lawsuit was filed against the two businesses, but it was ultimately dismissed.
