Key penalties imposed on Amazon across the world: A brief timeline

In a major setback for Amazon, India's competition watchdog Competition Commission of India (CCI) on December 17 imposed a penalty of Rs 200 crore and revoked its 2019 deal with Future Coupons.

Over the past year, the online retail giant has faced penalties from several antitrust regulators across the world on various grounds ranging from allegedly abusing its market dominance to violating GDPR and withholding driver tips.

Here's a quick look at some of the key ones. It's worth noting that Amazon has appealed or announced plans to appeal against these fines in almost all of these cases:

- December 9, 2021: Italian antitrust regulator imposed a fine of $1.28 billion on Amazon for allegedly using its market dominance to promote the adoption of its own logistics service 'Fulfilment by Amazon' among sellers active on the platform.

- November 2021: Amazon and Apple were handed a combined penalty of $225 million by Italy's antitrust authorities for allegedly flouting its competition rules in the sale of Apple and Beats products.

The authorities said both the companies signed an agreement in 2018 that ensured that only selected resellers were allowed to sell Apple and Beats products on Amazon's Italian marketplace, which affected competition on prices. Amazon was fined around $61 million while Apple was fined $119.5 million.

- July 2021: Amazon was hit with a $888 million penalty by Luxembourg's data protection regulator for violating European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by processing user's personal data, according to Bloomberg. The company challenged this fine in October 2021.

- February 2021: US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) fined Amazon $61.7 million for witholding some customer tips from its Flex delivery drivers over a two and a half year period. Amazon Flex drivers use their own vehicle to deliver packages for the company as a way to earn extra money.

- December 2020: Amazon faced a $42 million fine by France's data privacy regulator for placing advertising cookies on users' computers without obtaining prior consent and providing adequate information. This fine was following several investigations by the regulator between 12 December 2019 to 19 May 2020.

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