FILE - An Amazon logo appears connected an Amazon transportation van, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2020, successful Boston. A large outage successful Amazons unreality computing web Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021, severely disrupted services astatine a wide scope of U.S. companies for hours, raising questions astir the vulnerability of the net and its attraction successful the hands of a fewer firms. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File) (Steven Senne, Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

MILAN – Italy’s anti-trust authorization connected Thursday fined Amazon 1.13 cardinal euros ($1.3 billion), accusing the institution of exploiting its ascendant presumption against autarkic sellers connected its website successful usurpation of European Union contention rules.

The good is 1 of the largest leveraged successful Europe against the online retail giant, which expanded successful peculiar successful Italy during a coronavirus lockdown that prevented residents from going to stores to bargain items considered nonessential.

Amazon said it “strongly disagreed” with the determination and would appeal, calling the fines and projected remedies “unjustified and disproportionate.” It noted that much than fractional of yearly income successful Italy are from tiny and mean businesses that person entree to different channels to merchantability their goods.

Italy’s AGCM authorization said Amazon has required that third-party sellers usage its ain logistics service, called Fulfilment by Amazon, harming competitors and strengthening its ain position.

Ad

The e-commerce elephantine besides prevents third-party sellers from gaining entree to Amazon’s Prime loyalty program, “which makes it easier to merchantability to the much than 7 cardinal most-loyal and highest-spending consumers.”

That means specified sellers besides are excluded from peculiar events, including Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Prime Day offers, thereby besides decreasing the chances that the sellers’ items volition look arsenic a “featured offer.”

“The probe showed that specified benefits are important to summation visibility, to boost income and, successful turn, to the occurrence of the sellers’ offers connected Amazon.it,’’ the regulator said.

The authorization has ordered Amazon to assistance income benefits and visibility connected Amazon.it to each third-party sellers capable to conscionable the standards of its Prime service, which it indispensable publish.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This worldly whitethorn not beryllium published, broadcast, rewritten oregon redistributed without permission.