An antitrust win for Amazon and Apple in Italy, where an appeals court has canceled a multimillion dollar penalty the pair were hit with last year for alleged colluding.
An error in the competition watchdog's calculations reduced the original 203M penalty to 173.3M. The fine was canceled by the Lazio region's administrative court.
The AGCM was silent on the decision.
Administrative procedures are thought to be the reason for reversing the penalty.
According to the Italian press, the court agreed with the tech giants that the AGCM didn't give them enough time to properly defend themselves, and that it had failed to conduct elements of its investigation efficiently.
The Tar de Lazio ruling was welcomed by AMAZON.
“We welcome the Court’s decision. Our business model across Europe relies on the success of small and medium-sized businesses, and we will continue to work hard to provide a great selection from Apple, and the value and convenience that our customers love.”
Apple did not respond at the time of writing.
In Europe, both companies have plenty of antitrust issues to contend with, including complaints about Apple's App Store and Amazon's use of third party sellers' data.
There are at least two areas where the European Commission has previously issued formal statements of objection to Apple.
The EU is looking into Amazon's use of merchants' data in relation to how it operates the "Buy Box" on its marketplace and over T&Cs.
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