By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Amazon stock (NASDAQ:AMZN) was down 0.5% in premarket trade on Thursday after Italy’s competition regulator slapped it with a 1.13-billion-euro ($1.28 billion) penalty for alleged abuse of its market dominance.
The stock closed flat Wednesday.
The fine is one of the biggest imposed on a U.S. tech giant in Europe and comes out of one of the many cases the region’s regulators are pursuing against American companies over concerns ranging from privacy to abuse of market dominance.
Amazon said it "strongly disagreed" with the Italian regulator's decision and would appeal.
“Amazon holds a dominant position in the Italian market for intermediation services on marketplaces, which Amazon leveraged to favor the adoption of its own logistics service - Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) - by sellers active on Amazon.it to the detriment of the logistics services offered by competing operators, as well as to strengthen its own dominant position,” Italy’s antitrust regulator said in a statement posted on its website.
The authority said Amazon tied the use of FBA access to a set of exclusive benefits, including the Prime label, that help increase visibility and boost sales on its Italian website.
The Prime label makes it easier to sell to over 7 million typically high-spending members of Amazon’s loyalty program.