An Italian court has slashed a fine against Amazon, reducing the €1.13 billion penalty imposed by the country’s competition authority in 2021 for abusing its top market position.
The Lazio Regional Administrative Court confirmed on Tuesday that Amazon restricted competition in Italy’s e-commerce logistics sector.
However, it ruled that the Italian Antitrust Authority (AGCM) had wrongly applied a discretionary 50% surcharge to the original figure. The judges said the regulator failed to adequately justify why Amazon’s global turnover should trigger such an increase.
Although the court did not provide a revised figure, removing the surcharge would bring the penalty closer to €750 million, according to calculations cited by Reuters. Amazon has yet to respond to the ruling.
The fine, handed down in December 2021, was one of the toughest sanctions ever imposed on a U.S. tech giant in Europe. Regulators accused Amazon of favouring its own logistics service, Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA), at the expense of independent providers.
Sellers who chose FBA were reportedly rewarded with better visibility and access to Prime benefits, tilting the playing field in Amazon’s favour.
The court’s decision preserves the core finding of Amazon being engaged in anti-competitive issues. What it does change is the financial weight of the punishment.
In striking out the surcharge, the ruling exposes a weakness in how competition regulators calculate penalties against multinational corporations with revenues that far exceed the scale of their local operations.
Across Europe, Amazon is still facing some issues. Authorities in Germany, France and at the European Commission have launched similar investigations, many centred on platform self-preferencing, data use, and unfair treatment of third-party sellers.
The case reveals that European regulators are determined to hold Big Tech accountable, and applying financial penalties in proportion to global tech revenues is still legally and politically complex.
Comments 2