Two and a half years ago, the tech group Apple in France received a record fine of 1.1 billion euros for price fixing. He appeals, with success: a court has now reduced the sentence to around a third. But Apple thinks that’s not enough.
An appeals court in Paris has reduced a fine imposed by France’s competition authority against the US technology group Apple by around two-thirds to 371.6 million euros. This was learned by the AFP news agency. In March 2020, the authority imposed a record fine of 1.1 billion euros on Apple because the US group had made price agreements at the expense of retailers. Apple announced that it would also contest the now reduced fine.
According to sources in the judiciary, the Court of Appeal upheld only two of the three violations objected to by the competition authority and also reduced the amount of the fines to be paid by Apple.
France’s competition watchdogs accused Apple of pressuring independent retailers that sold Apple products in order to encourage customers to buy from the company’s own stores.
The judgment of the court of appeals is to be published on Friday. Apple has already announced to the AFP news agency that it intends to challenge the decision before the Court of Cassation – the last instance in the French legal system. According to the US group, the penalty “should have been completely lifted”.
The decision relates to business practices that were more than ten years old and would no longer be pursued by Apple, even according to the competition authority, the company said. According to its own statements, the competition authority is also considering going before the Court of Cassation.
The case had already started rolling in 2012 after an Apple exclusive dealer contacted the French competition authorities because the US group had abused its dominant position in favor of its own branches.
Apple has been the target of European authorities several times in recent years – among other things because of an agreement with the EU member state Ireland that enabled the group to pay a particularly low corporate tax rate.
