It reached one billion euros Why did an Italian authority impose a huge fine on "Amazon"?

Italy's competition regulator Thursday fined Amazon more than 1,128 billion euros for "abusing a dominant position" by discriminating against sellers who did not use its logistics.

This is one of the largest fines that a country has imposed for practices deemed anti-competitive against one of the US tech giants targeted in several countries.

"Amazon has harmed rival operators in e-commerce logistics," the authority said in a statement.

In response to a question by Agence France-Presse, the American company expressed its "strong opposition" to this punishment, which will be appealed against. It also considered that "the fine and the proposed corrective measures are unjustified and disproportionate."

And the Italian competition regulator said Thursday that Amazon's dominant position in the Italian market "enabled it to promote its logistics services to active sellers on its platform at the expense of competing operators."

It added that sellers who do not use Amazon's logistics service are denied "a range of essential benefits to make (their products) visible and improve sales prospects".

By doing so, the US company "caused harm to competing e-commerce logistics service providers by preventing them from presenting themselves to online sellers as providers of quality services comparable to Amazon's logistics," according to the authority.

It concluded that this strategy "widened the gap between the strength of Amazon and the strength of its competitors" in the Italian market.

Countries in the European Union have doubled down on financial sanctions against US and Chinese digital giants in recent months in an effort to further regulate their activities.

A spokeswoman for the European Commission confirmed that the latter "cooperated closely" with the Italian competition regulator in this investigation, which it considered "an example of successful coordination".