French authorities’s competitors watchdog right now fined Apple for its anti-competitive conduct. Apple was fined 1.1 billion euros whereas the 2 Apple wholesalers, Tech Data and Ingram Micro, had been penalized, respectively for 76.1 million euros and 62.9 million euros.
“First, Apple and its two wholesalers agreed not to compete and prevent distributors from competing with each other, thereby sterilizing the wholesale market for Apple products,” mentioned President of the French Competition Authority Isabelle de Silva, in an announcement. “Secondly, so-called Premium distributors could not risk promoting or lowering prices without risk, which led to an alignment of retail prices between Apple’s integrated distributors and independent Premium distributors.”
Apple supplied the next assertion concerning the choice by French Competition Authority.
“The decision relates to practices from over a decade ago and discards thirty years of legal precedent that all companies in France rely on with an order that will cause chaos for companies across all industries,” he mentioned. “We strongly disagree with them and plan to appeal. We are extremely proud to serve our French customers and believe they should be allowed to choose the product they want, either through Apple Retail or our large network of resellers across the country.”
Recently, Apple was fined 25 million euros by French authorities for slowing down iPhones by updates. Early this month, Apple agreed to settle the same class-action lawsuit that was filed in opposition to it within the US. As a part of this settlement, Apple pays round $25 per iPhone to shoppers.
