Yesterday it was reported that Russia’s Federal Anti-Monopoly Service has opened a case into price-fixing allegations concerning iPhones. However, Apple has strongly denied the allegations.
“The Anti-Monopoly Service sees signs of price fixing violations in the Russian Federation at Apple iPhone resellers, which resulted in the same prices for these smartphones,” the service told Reuters.
The anti-monopoly body said it had opened its case after an appeal from a citizen with information that identical prices had been set for iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus models, which appeared in Russia in October 2015, at 16 major resellers.
An Federal Anti-Monopoly Service added that an investigation had showed that resellers had set identical prices and kept them at that level for a certain time period, including for other models.
“Resellers set their own prices for the Apple products they sell in Russia and around the world,” Apple said in a statement to Reuters.
In 2014, the Russian government requested that Apple hand over source code for investigation, following the Snowden revelations of governmental spying with smartphones. An Russian official claimed that companies that do not hand over the code “may have undeclared capabilities in their products.” Apple CEO Tim Cook has denied ever supplying source code to any government.
