French court lowers fine against Apple for alleged anti-competitive behavior

A French court has “substantially lowered” a fine against Apple for alleged anti-competitive behavior to 372 million euros (about US$366.31 million) from 1.1 billion euros previously, reports Reuters.

In March 2020, the Autorité de la Concurrence fined Apple 1.1 billion euros for anti-competitive behavior in its distribution network and an abuse of economic dependence on its resellers.Two of Apple’s wholesalers, Tech Data and Ingram Micro, were fined 63 million euros and 76 million euros respectively, for unlawfully agreeing on prices.

“Apple and its two wholesalers have agreed not to compete with each other and to prevent distributors from competing with each other, thereby sterilising the wholesale market for Apple products,” the Autorité de la Concurrence said.

When fined in 2020, Apple said the French Competition Authority’s decision was “disheartening” and “discards thirty years of legal precedent.”