Last July, The National Market and Competition Commission (CNMC) imposed a fine of 194.15 million euros on various companies in the Amazon and Apple groups. The reason according to this organization: agree and implement certain restrictions the competition on Amazon’s online market or “marketplace”.
The decision of the National Court, which partially upheld the appeal filed by both companies against the CNMC decision, was taken into account two cars of December 2023, according to the documentation published in the Judicial Documentation Center (Cendoj) and reported by the newspaper “La Información”.
In this way, Section No. 6 of the Disputes and Administrative Chamber of the National Court has temporarily suspended the fines imposed on Apple Distribution International for an amount of 128.64 million euros and Apple for 15 million euros (a total of 143.64 million euros) and 50.51 million euros for Amazon Services Europe, Amazon Europe Core and Amazon EU.
In both cases the regional court Requires the precautionary suspension of fines for companies that provide a guarantee for the specified amounts. The Justice Authority has also provisionally suspended the ban on all the above-mentioned companies from concluding contracts with the public administration, a measure that was included in the resolution adopted by the CNMC.
However, the national court has confirmed this Obligation for both Apple and Amazon to stop the behavior This led to the fine imposed by the CNMC.
Amazon and Apple’s defenses
In his appeal Amazon claims that full payment of the sanctions imposed would mean the immediate commitment of “nearly 25% of the liquid assets as of December 31, 2022 of the affected companies.”
“These are amounts allocated both to the company’s current expenses (such as payments to suppliers, salaries, etc.) and to capital investments already planned and ongoing across Europe, including the opening of new distribution centers and warehouses. which results in sales being closer to the customer and thus creating a more sustainable distribution,” the published order states.
“The accounting situation of the sanctioned companies as a whole would lead to losses of 720,446,350 euros. As of December 31, 2022, ASE, AEC and AEU have debts to the State Treasury, Social Security and third parties that they have in total amount to 3,295,988,782 euros,” he adds.
On his part Manzana argues in its appeal that the fine imposed corresponds to the percentage of sales in the online retail market of Apple-branded electronic products in Spain. “Payment of the fine could jeopardize the ability, incentives and/or capacity of the complainants to make investments in the allegedly affected market and in particular in Amazon’s ‘marketplace’ in Spain,” the order says.
CNMC’s second highest fine
This fine against Apple and Amazon is the second highest imposed by the CNMC in its history, surpassed only by the €203.6 million fine imposed on six of the largest construction companies in Spain for violating the competitive process have changed for more than 25 years. in the infrastructure sector, construction tenders.
As the CNMC reported in July 2023, Both companies agreed to include a number of clauses in the contracts that govern Amazon’s terms as an Apple distributor This affected the sale of Apple products and other brands on the Amazon website in Spain.
On the one hand, they “unjustifiably” limited the number of resellers of Apple products on the Amazon website in Spain and, on the other hand, they limited the advertising spaces in which competing Apple products can be promoted on the Amazon website in Spain, the CNMC then detailed. . Aside from that, They restricted the ability of Amazon to target marketing campaigns to customers of Apple products on its website in Spain to offer them competing products from other brands.