Last year, Apple and Amazon agreed that the Cupertino company was selling its products directly to consumers through an official Apple Store on the e-commerce site. “As part of a new agreement with Apple, we are working with a select group of authorized resellers to offer an extensive selection of Apple and Beats products, including new versions, in Amazon stores,” an Amazon spokesperson told The Verge. The company declined to comment on whether third parties would leave the platform, but recommended that any person or company wishing to sell refurbished products try to qualify for Amazon Renewed. But as the announcement of the agreement with Apple showed, there are special requirements to become an Apple reseller that make it restrictive for everyone except large operations. It is essentially a price agreement between a dominant retailer and a brand. And that`s illegal under Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act. The agreement was reached nearly two years ago by providing an official Apple Store to Amazon and limiting the sale of Apple products to authorized resellers … The documents show, as reported by Bloomberg, an email exchange between Apple`s senior vice president, Eddy Cue, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in November 2016. The stock exchange shows an agreement that Apple receives a 15% share of subscription revenue to Amazon`s Prime Video app, compared to the 30% it usually calculates for all others.
In particular, Hubbard believes that the Amazon-Apple agreement could be a violation of cartel and abuse of dominance legislation regarding anti-competitive practices such as the price agreement and illegal market allocation. “You don`t have to agree with another company to lay the groundwork for your pricing,” she says. “If you have these brands and a dominant distributor like Amazon and Amazon says, “We`re going to make sure that anyone who sells below your prices can no longer be allowed to sell on your platform,” it`s actually a price-fixing agreement between a dominant retailer and a brand. And it`s illegal according to Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act.” For those who used Amazon for an iPod Classic, especially one with a flash drive, it was much faster than when it first appeared, PiratePT Electronics was one of the few sellers available. Ilardi still maintains a 98 percent positive rating on the platform, although Amazon no longer allows it to list its products. But let`s not cry too much for the big companies that are getting down to business, because at the end of the day, it`s us – the users – who got stuck in the middle of this titanic battle, and left it with a sub-par experience.