Paris (AFP)
The French Competition Authority condemns Apple to pay a record fine of 1.1 billion euros for "cartels within its distribution network" and "abuse of economic dependence on its independent resellers" , she announced Monday.
"It is the heaviest sanction pronounced" by the Authority, which considered that Apple "had committed an abuse of economic dependence, with regard to its retailers + premium +, practice which the Authority considers as particularly serious" , details a press release from the French competition gendarme.
In addition, two wholesalers, Tech Data and Ingram Micro, were also fined 76.1 million euros and 62.9 million euros, respectively, for "one of the practices of cartel".
"Apple and its two wholesalers have agreed not to compete and prevent distributors from competing with each other, thereby sterilizing the wholesale market for Apple products," said Isabelle de Silva, president of the Autorité de la competition, cited in the press release.
In addition, "so-called + premium + distributors could not safely carry out promotions or price reductions, which led to an alignment of retail prices between Apple's integrated distributors and independent + premium + distributors", she continues. .
Finally, Apple "improperly exploited the economic dependence of these distributors + premium + in its regard, by subjecting them to unfair and unfavorable commercial conditions compared to its network of integrated distributors", said the president of the Authority, in a decision with a particularly harsh tone.
The competition policeman had been seized in 2012 by the site eBizcuss, distributor of high-end specialized Apple products which was at the time the first exclusive dealer of the American giant in France: he had filed a complaint for unfair competition, abuse dominance and abuse of economic dependence.
eBizcuss, which employed 130 people, criticized the American giant for having less and less supplied it with products and for having refocused over the years its activity on its own Apple Stores. Its liquidation was pronounced on May 31, 2012.
In 2013, the Authority had carried out surprise searches on the premises of Apple France and several resellers. Their legality had been disputed, but they had finally been validated by the courts in 2018.
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