The National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC) has launched a new sanctioning file against Apple and Amazon for failing to comply with the cease conduct order relating to anticompetitive practices included in the 2023 sanctioning resolution, as the agency led by Juan José Ganuza Fernández reported this Monday.
In July 2023, the CNMC imposed a joint fine of 194 million euros on Apple and Amazon for introducing clauses of an anticompetitive nature in the contracts that set the conditions of Amazon as a distributor of Apple, and required both companies to adopt the necessary measures to put an end to those practices.
However, the regulator emphasizes that it was not until May 2025 when the companies withdrew the clauses that limited the number of resellers of Apple products on Amazon and that also restricted Amazon advertising spaces for Apple’s rivals.
Thus, on October 1, 2025, the CNMC Council concluded that Amazon and Apple had failed to comply with the July 2023 resolution, by not stopping the sanctioned conduct until May 2025, when they received the non-compliance proposal prepared by the Directorate for Competition.
Consequently, the Council requested that the Directorate for Competition formally open a sanctioning file upon finding indications of an infringement derived from that non-compliance.
The initiation of this procedure, which takes place after the courts rejected the precautionary suspension requested by both multinationals, “does not prejudice the final outcome of the investigation,” and opens a maximum period of 3 months for its investigation and subsequent resolution by the CNMC.
In addition, the CNMC recalls that both the 2023 sanctioning resolution and the 2025 non-compliance resolution have been appealed before the Audiencia Nacional and still remain pending a ruling.