Italy’s antitrust watchdog has reportedly fined Amazon and Apple more than $225 million for alleged anti-competitive cooperation in sales of Apple and Beats products.

The authority said that contractual conditions of an agreement made in 2018 between the tech giants meant that only select resellers were able to sell the products on Amazon.it. The regulator claimed that this was in breach of EU rules and had impacted competition on prices, according to a report by Reuters.

The report said that both companies will appeal the fines.

"To ensure our customers purchase genuine products, we work closely with our reseller partners and have dedicated teams of experts around the world who work with law enforcement, customs and merchants to ensure only genuine Apple products are being sold," Apple told the news agency.

The Italian organisation dished out a fine of 68.7 million euros on Amazon, while Apple faced the larger fine of 134.5 million euros. It also ordered the companies to end the restrictions to give retailers of genuine Apple and Beats products access to Amazon, said the report.

"We reject the suggestion that Amazon benefits by excluding sellers from our store, since our business model relies on their success. As a result of the agreement, Italian customers can find the latest Apple and Beats products on our store, benefiting from a catalogue that more than doubled, with better deals and faster shipping," Amazon said, as reported by Reuters.

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