Italian antitrust fines Amazon over 1 bn euros

(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 9 - The Italian antitrust authority said Thursday that it has issued fines to a series of Amazon companies - Amazon Europe Core S.à r.l., Amazon Services Europe S.à r.l., Amazon EU S.à r.l., Amazon Italia Services S.r.l.and Amazon Italia Logistica S.r.l.- totalling 1.12 billion euros.
    The authority said the Internet giant had broken European law by abusing its dominant position to the detriment of competitors in the sector of logistical services for e-commerce.
    Amazon said in a statement that it "profoundly" disagreed with a "unjustified and disproportionate" penalty and would appeal.
    It said that over half of the annual sales on Amazon in Italy were "generated by small and medium-sized enterprises".
    In a separate case last month, the Italian antitrust authority imposed a fine of 68.7 million euros on Amazon and 134.5 million euros on Apple over restrictions on sellers of Apple and Beats products. (ANSA).