Cartel Office is examining action against Amazon and Apple - the President of the authorities is combative

Created: 01/02/2022, 02:56 PM

Andreas Mundt, President of the Federal Cartel Office, is at the headquarters of his authority.

(Archive image) © Roberto Pfeil / dpa

Does Amazon work with Apple?

The Federal Cartel Office is currently examining this.

There were already penalties in Italy.

Bonn - The Federal Cartel Office is investigating possible anti-competitive agreements between the online retailer Amazon and the technology manufacturer Apple.

"We are currently examining, among other things, whether there is a collaboration between Amazon and brand manufacturers such as Apple that disadvantages third-party retailers," said the President of the Authority, Andreas Mundt, of the

.

It is about opening up the market by allowing companies other than Apple to sell devices from the mobile phone company via Amazon's marketplace.

Cartel Office is examining action against Amazon and Apple - the President of the authorities is combative

In November, the Italian antitrust authority imposed fines totaling around 200 million euros against Amazon and Apple for collusion.

This involved the sale of products from Apple and the audio technology manufacturer Beats, which belongs to Apple.

According to the authority, the two US companies had agreed that only Amazon and a few selected retailers were allowed to sell Apple and Beats products in Italy.

Mundt was generally combative in dealing with the four large online companies Google, Amazon, Apple and the Facebook parent Meta.

Seven new proceedings were opened against them in 2021 alone.

President of the Federal Cartel Office: "The markets are tending to monopolize"

"We can already see from the stock market values ​​of these corporations what kind of economic power we are dealing with," said the President of the Cartel Office.

“And we know that the big platforms benefit greatly from network effects: Because they are used frequently, the range is large, and because the range is large, new users are added again.

The markets tend to monopolize. "

Mundt asked Facebook to enable access to the social network without evaluating data from the messenger service WhatsApp, which is also part of the group, as well as from third-party services.

“It must be possible to use the basic functions of Facebook without having to agree to the unlimited use of personal data,” he said.

"The customer must be free to choose."

Corona also shapes the year at the Federal Cartel Office

According to Mundt, the past year was also heavily influenced by the corona pandemic at the Federal Cartel Office.

“It is not easy to advance proceedings under such conditions that rely on searches of business and private premises or the examination of witnesses to preserve evidence.

But we will definitely get back to our usual rate. "

Overall, his authority imposed fines of around 105 million euros in 2021, said Mundt.

That means a decrease of around 70 percent compared to 2020.

There are also fewer companies than before to unpack through secret agreements in their industry, added Mundt.

To ensure that there are more such key witnesses again, they should have more advantages than before: “For those who are the first to unpack, we should not only wholly or largely waive the state punishment.

We should also exempt this company largely or entirely from claims for damages. "