By Manskar
France’s antitrust watchdog fined Apple about $1.2 billion on Monday for alleged anti-competitive practices.
The French Competition Authority issued the fine of 1.1 billion euros — the largest it has ever imposed on a single firm — after finding the tech giant “guilty of cartels” and of abusing its resellers’ economic dependence. French officials also fined two Apple wholesalers a total of 139 million euros, or roughly $155 million.
“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,” Isabelle de Silva, the competition authority’s president, said in a translated news release.
The wholesalers, US-based Tech Data and Ingram Micro, implemented the “product and customer allocation mechanisms” that Apple developed instead of setting their own policy, according to French officials. The authority said it fined Tech Data 76.1 million euros ($84.5 million) while Ingram Micro was fined 62.9 million euros ($69.8 million).
Apple also caused supply issues and “discriminatory treatment” for the company’s resellers, according to the competition authority.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday, but the company said in its most recent quarterly report that it “vigorously disagrees” with the competition authority’s allegations.
A spokesperson for the company told CNBC that it plans to appeal and called the decision “disheartening.”
“It 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,” the Apple spokesperson told CNBC.
Ingram Micro said it was “absolutely disappointed” with the authority’s decision and planned to contest it.
“The IT distribution market in France, and in particular the distribution of Apple products, is extremely competitive for IT distributors,” the company said in a statement.
Tech Data said it previously disclosed the investigation that started in 2013 but did not comment on the substance of the decision as the company determines how to respond.
French officials also slapped Apple with a 25 million euro ($27.7 million) fine in February over software updates that were likely to slow down older iPhones.
