France’s competition watchdog will fine Apple next week over anti-competitive behavior in its distribution and sales network, Reuters reports, quoting two unnamed “sources close to the matter.”
One of the sources said the competition authority will give a decision on the matter on Monday. Both sources didn’t elaborate further on the content or the size of the fine. The French competition authority declined to comment.
In March 2018, Apple issued a statement to the French language site, MacGeneration allegations made by Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire (pictured) that it and Alphabet’s Google are guilty of “abusive commercial practices.”
Le Maire’s office said an investigation by the ministry’s fraud office determined that between 2015 and 2017 there were “significant imbalances” in the relationship between the two companies and developers who sold via their application stores. He said the fines could be in the “million of euros.”
Here’s Apple’s statement: “We are proud to have strong relationships with tens of thousands of developers across France, who have earned 1 billion euros on the App Store. Many of these talented developers founded their companies with one or two people and then saw their teams grow to offer their applications to users in 155 countries. This was only possible thanks to Apple’s investment in iOS, development tools, and the App Store. Apple has always defended the confidentiality and security of users and does not have access to user transactions with third-party applications. We are fully prepared to share our history in the French courts and to clarify this misunderstanding. In the meantime, we will continue to help French developers realize their dreams and support French students in their learning of the code through our coding program.”
