Italy fines Amazon, Apple $230M over reseller collusion – TechCrunch:
Amazon and Apple have been hit with almost $230 million (€203M) in total fines by Italy’s antitrust authority — following an investigation into reselling of Apple and (Apple-owned) Beats kit on Amazon’s Italian ecommerce marketplace.
The authority says the alleged collusion decreased the level of discounts available to consumers buying Apple and Beats products on the Amazon Italy marketplace.
It has also ordered the tech giants to end the restrictions on resellers.
The AGCM announced the sanction today, saying its probe identified a restrictive agreement between the pair to block some “legitimate” resellers of Beats products on Amazon.it.
The fine breaks down into €134.5M (~$151M) for Amazon — and €68.7M (~$77.3M) for Apple.
The agreement in question was signed between the pair back in October 2018.
Per the AGCM’s press release, it found the agreement contained a number of contractual clauses which prohibited official and unofficial resellers of Apple and Beats products from using Amazon.it — with the restriction limiting the sale of Apple and Beats products on Amazon.it to Amazon itself and a number of resellers the authority says were “chosen individually and in a discriminatory way” — in violation of Art. 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 28 2021, @08:16AM
I recognize the fact that the fine is not big enough. Cost of doing business.
But I also gave thought on this, and I always try to compare to what happens to regular folks when they commit a crime. We need something as a "life sentence", "three strikes", "pretrial detention" for companies.
Could be simple things for publicly traded companies: hit them in the stocks: block all stocks/trades till the ruling is out, that also gives them an incentive not to drag out the case for ages. Fines could also be paid by issueing new stock for the fine value + selloff as this impacts shareholders. (and C-levels as they usually get bonus based on stocks)
And yes, I would open board of directors and VP-level open to more liability similar to accessories in regular ppl cases. But only those "responsible" for the area of the fine.
But as already mentioned, your idea will string up quite some innocent people.
I've been team leader, Quality Lead and Product manager. In all of those functions there are many illegal ways to screw consumers completely out of my control.
When the companies would get punished significantly that it's no longer cost of doing business; all employees will get their impact anyway.
In any case, with the revolving doors I don't expect either idea to make it very far...