Germany’s Federal Cartel Office is investing Amazon and Apple over “brandgating”, an Amazon policy that lets makers of branded products like iPhone have independent sellers removed (via Bloomberg).
Brandgating
Since 2019 Amazon has included Apple products in its marketplace, but only from authorized Apple sellers. One such reseller is Amazon itself.
The Office notes that this brandgating can help stop product piracy but they must also follow antitrust rules. Amazon said it has been cooperating with the investigation and says it never removes sales permissions without a good reason.
In a statement, Apple said:
The safety of our customers is our first priority, and our teams are constantly working with law enforcement, resellers and e-commerce sites around the world to remove counterfeit products from the market. We work with Amazon to protect our customers from counterfeit products and provide confidence they are receiving a genuine Apple product out of the box.