Andreas Mundt, head of the Federal Cartel Office, has confirmed that his authority has initiated proceedings against Amazon and Apple. The case concerns Amazon’s practice of concluding exclusive contracts with brand manufacturers and thus excluding other companies from trading in the products concerned.
Protection against counterfeit goods as an argument
A prominent example of this practice is the exclusive contract that Amazon has concluded with Apple. Since the end of 2018, Amazon has had an official sales license from Apple. Since 2019, only Amazon itself, Apple and other companies licensed by Apple are allowed to sell iPhones and Co. via the Amazon marketplace. On the one hand, this serves to protect against counterfeit goods, but on the other hand it excludes smaller companies trading with used devices from participating in the Amazon marketplace, which is a considerable competitive disadvantage. Mundt explained that the practice is useful as protection against the trade with...
