Apple fined €1.1 billion in France for restricting competition

Apple has been fined €1.1 billion by French regulator Autorité de la Concurrence for restricting competition and abusing market power. It is the highest fine imposed by the French regulator to date.

In addition to Apple, wholesalers Tech Data and Ingram Micro were fined for the same offenses, the regulator writes. The French regulator says that from 2005 to 2013, Apple mainly distributed its products through those two wholesalers, making competition between wholesalers for Apple products impossible.

In addition, Apple is said to have more or less forced its Authorized Resellers and Premium Resellers to set certain prices, preventing them from competing on price. That is bad, because according to the regulator, the resellers were economically dependent on Apple. In addition, in addition to prices, Apple also controlled the stocks that the resellers received, making them completely dependent on Apple for business operations.

Apple has not yet commented on the decision. The Autorité de la Concurrence has not yet put the full decision online and it is unknown how appeals can be made. According to the decision, Apple will be fined approximately 1.1 billion euros, Tech Data 76 million euros and Ingram Mobile 62 million euros.