A new investigation reveals a secret agreement between Apple and Amazon on Amazon’s online store, where users can buy all products manufactured by Apple.
According to Business Insider, the investigation results show that Amazon will block a large number of advertisers from Apple’s product page. That goes against the principles of competition so the US Federal Trade Commission can pursue this case, becoming bad news for the iPhone manufacturer.
The investigation may target an agreement between the two companies to provide certain incentives to Apple. When their products are on display, ads are seen less to limit the ability of other brands to compete.
For example, if a user searches for “iPhone” on Amazon, they will see a clean product page where everything that appears is from Apple itself. However, when searching for a flagship device like the Xiaomi 13, the first thing that appears is an advertisement for the Google Pixel 8 – a direct competing product.
authorities Apple argues that this is a way to combat the sale of counterfeit goods, though this is not convincing enough for antitrust. There are several antitrust lawsuits going on right now, including against Apple, Google, and Bing, so the just-revealed deal could add fuel to the fire.
At the present time, the investigation is still ongoing to assess whether this activity of the two companies caused any serious consequences, or whether it was simply a legal commercial agreement.