Apple fined 1.1 billion euros for anti-competitive behavior in France

French government’s competition watchdog today fined Apple for its anti-competitive behavior. Apple was fined 1.1 billion euros while the two Apple wholesalers, Tech Data and Ingram Micro, were 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,” said President of the French Competition Authority Isabelle de Silva, in a statement. “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 offered the following statement regarding the decision 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 said. “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 government for slowing down iPhones through updates. Early this month, Apple agreed to settle a similar class-action lawsuit that was filed against it in the US. As part of this settlement, Apple will pay around $25 per iPhone to consumers.

Source: French Government