Italy Gets in on the Trend: Apple and Amazon Fined

November 26, 2021

I spotted this ABC News item “Italian Competition Watchdog Fines Apple, Amazon $225M.” The “m” means million,” not macaroni, which is shaped like a small tube, not a big tube like the money pipes running into these estimable firms.

The ABC News report asserts:

Italy’s antitrust watchdog has fined Apple and Amazon a total of more than 200 million euros ($225 million) for cooperating to restrict competition in the sale of Apple and Beats branded products in violation of European Union rules.

Yep, headphones and “cooperating to restrict competition.” But headphones.

With Apple’s concern for the rights of its iPhone customers in the wake of the NSO Group’s unending publicity, it is delightful to note that Apple is a colluder.

What’s better? A friendly Amazon deal or a company which licenses its software to governments which pretty much do as they darn well please?

I think that the two actions are very much like a photo finish horse race? Too close to call.

Stephen E Arnold, November 25, 2021

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