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COMPETITION

ABB fined for breaching EU competition rules

Swedish-Swiss engineering firm ABB, along with six other manufacturers of power transformers, have been fined a total €67.6 million ($99.4 million) for violating European Union competition rules.

In addition to ABB, the European Commission on Wednesday named Areva, T & D, Alstom, Fuji Electrics, Hitachi, and Toshiba as having agreed not to compete in the power transformer market in Europe and Japan.

Siemens was also a part of the cartel, but avoided fines because it had exposed the cartel.

The fine against ABB was also increased by 50 percent because the company was guilty of a similar violation previously, the Commission said in a statement.

The cartel was in effect between 1999 and 2003, with the companies involved agreeing to divide up the market between them.

According to the arrangement, the Japanese companies were not allowed to sell transformers in Europe and the European manufacturers agreed to stay out of the market in Japan.

ABB said in a statement that the company is set to pay a fine of €33.75 million, or half of the total fine.

In its statement, ABB also said the company is “committed to fair and open competition in markets around the world” and that is has a “zero tolerance policy” for illegal or unethical behaviour.

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COMPETITION

Amazon under investigation by Italy’s competition watchdog

Italy's competition authority said on Tuesday it had opened an investigation into Amazon for possible abuse of its dominant position in online commerce and logistics.

Amazon under investigation by Italy's competition watchdog
Did Amazon unfairly profit from its market dominance in Italy? Photo: Philippe Huguen/AFP

The authority said it suspected that the retail giant had been giving preferential exposure to third-party vendors on its platform only if they subscribed to Amazon's logistics service.

READ ALSO: Amazon promises to bring 1,700 new jobs to Italy

“These practices would have allowed Amazon to profit unfairly from its dominant position” in online commerce platforms “in order to significantly curtail competition” on storage and dispatch markets, said the Italian competition authority, Antitrust. These practices would have in the end harmed consumers, it added.

The investigation is likely to last a year, said Antitrust. The authority's agents inspected various Amazon sites on Tuesday, accompanied by members of the financial crime unit.

The Italian case follows probes by authorities in Japan, France, Austria and the EU Commission into practices by Amazon and other tech giants like Google, Apple and Facebook.

In June 2017, the EU Commission hit Google with a fine of €2.42 billion for abuse of its dominant market position, the first such sanction for the company in Europe. 

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