MILAN :Italy's antitrust watchdog said on Thursday it had fined Amazon 1.13 billion euros for alleged abuse of market dominance, in one of the biggest penalties imposed on a U.S. tech giant in Europe.Global regulatory scrutiny of tech giants has been increasing after a string of scandals over privacy and misinformation, as well as complaints from some businesses that they abuse their market power.
Italy's watchdog said in a statement that Amazon had leveraged its dominant position in the Italian market for intermediation services on marketplaces to favour the adoption of its own logistics service - Fulfilment by Amazon - by sellers active on Amazon.it. "Amazon prevents third-party sellers from associating the Prime label with offers not managed with FBA," it said.
The antitrust authority also said it would impose corrective steps that will be subject to review by a monitoring trustee.