Spain hits Apple and Amazon with $218 million combined antitrust fine

Wow, EU countries sure do love treating Apple as their personal checkbook with these made up fines.

Wow! Three of the four allegations use the verb 'could' not did but could. That is not evidence! That is an allegation and they think this justifies a fine of that magnitude.  I hope both Apple and Amazon do appeal this. Spain deserves to lose in this action!

In the US, terms of the Apple-Amazon agreement mean that resellers must either be authorized by Apple, or buy at least $2.5 million in refurbished inventory every 90 days. The latter must come directly from Apple or through a third party with over $5 billion in annual sales, typically meaning carriers and national retailers. It's not clear if the terms in Spain are the same.

So to be part of the Apple market via Amazon in the U.S. a retailer must buy almost a million dollars in refurb Apple gear a month or work through a third party with $5 billion in annual sales. That would exclude a lot of mid-sized companies, much less smaller businesses. If that's not colluding with Amazon to keep down competition, then what is? And of course for Spain those numbers would be adjusted down for the market size.

There's no need to feel sympathy for Apple. The company is reaping what it sowed when it and a number of other Silicon Valley tech companies use thed Double Irish scheme to evade European taxes. Collectively as the EU and individually as countries, the Europeans are going to get that money back or at the very least make Apple's life hell. And it is very easy to suspect that whatever attitude the average European has toward EU regulations, they're delighted by these moves. The taxes that Apple, Adobe, Google and others did not pay are taxes they as Europeans had to pay. And don't forget that with most of Apple's well-paying jobs located in either Cupertino or Austin, Apple isn't putting much money back into Europe.

If you've wondered what the Double Irish is, here's a good explanation.

https://techcrunch.com/2013/10/28/the-double-irish-could-be-endangered-preventing-companies-like-google-and-twitter-from-shedding-tax-liabilities/?guccounter=1

For Apple and Amazon to state that companies should be blocked due to size - not skills or customer experience, and that killing small companies is good for innovation or competition... oh boy!

Not sure why Apple keep reenacting their miserable corporate version of "Team America: World Police". A lot of US companies are great global actors. What is the benefit to Apple?

nubus said:

For Apple and Amazon to state that companies should be blocked due to size - not skills or customer experience, and that killing small companies is good for innovation or competition... oh boy!

Not sure why Apple keep reenacting their miserable corporate version of "Team America: World Police". A lot of US companies are great global actors. What is the benefit to Apple?

The benefit to Apple is that it's easier for them to control how their products are presented in the marketplace. Logically, the only way to ensure that something happens the way you want it to is to exert very tight control over the entire process, and that's easier to do if you have a few large "partners" who stand to lose a significant amount of your business if you're displeased than with a large number of smaller vendors who may not be as dependent on you.

Apple have the right to attempt this, but I don't see how it's compatible with the wider legal landscape that places more value on stimulating competition to get a better customer experience than on recognising a single company's efforts to do so.