CNMC Says Apple & Amazon Delayed Compliance With 2023 Antitrust Order

Key Takeaways

• Regulator Declares Non-Compliance: The CNMC concluded that Apple and Amazon failed to comply in a timely manner with its July 2023 cease and desist order.
• €194 Million Fine in 2023: The original sanction addressed anti-competitive clauses in contracts governing Amazon’s role as an Apple distributor in Spain.
• Clauses Removed in May 2025: The restrictive provisions were eliminated nearly two years after the resolution, following a non-compliance proposal.
• New Sanctioning Procedure Possible: The CNMC Council has requested that its Competition Directorate initiate a new sanctioning procedure due to evidence of infringement.
• Appeal Pending: The CNMC’s decision has been appealed to the National Court and is awaiting judgment.

Deep Dive

Spain’s competition authority is once again turning its attention to Apple and Amazon, and this time not for the original conduct that led to a €194 million fine, but for what it says was a failure to stop it quickly enough.

The CNMC announced that both companies failed to comply with the cease and desist order issued in its July 2023 sanctioning resolution. While the offending contractual clauses were eventually removed, that did not happen until May 2025, nearly two years after the original decision.

For the regulator, that delay matters. In July 2023, the CNMC fined Apple and Amazon a combined €194 million for including anti-competitive clauses in contracts governing Amazon’s conditions as an Apple distributor in Spain.

According to the authority, those clauses distorted competition in several ways. They restricted the number of Apple product resellers allowed to operate on Amazon’s Spanish website. They limited the advertising spaces where competing Apple products could appear. And they prevented Amazon from directing marketing campaigns to customers of Apple products to promote competing brands.

Alongside the fine, the CNMC ordered both companies to cease the sanctioned conduct and take the necessary steps to correct it.

Compliance but Too Late

The clauses restricting reseller numbers and limiting advertising space for competitors were ultimately removed in May 2025.

But in the CNMC’s view, that action came only after the Competition Directorate issued a formal non-compliance proposal.

On October 1, 2025, the CNMC Council formally declared that Apple and Amazon had failed to comply with the July 2023 resolution because they did not cease the sanctioned conduct until May 2025.

In other words, compliance arrived but only after regulatory pressure intensified.

The Council has now requested that the Competition Directorate initiate a new sanctioning procedure due to evidence of infringement stemming from the delayed compliance. The outcome of that potential procedure remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, the CNMC’s decision has been appealed to Spain’s National Court and is pending judgment.

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