Apple asks France to cancel the fine of 1.1 billion euros imposed in 2020

Apple demands that France cancel the record fine of 1.1 billion euros imposed last year. Before the Paris Court of Appeal, the Cupertino group said this historic fine was solely motivated by political reasons.

In March 2020, the French Competition Authority imposed a record fine of 1.1 billion euros on Apple. The Silicon Valley giant was accused of having imposed prices and conditions of supply to resellers of its distribution network in defiance of laws against anti-competitive practices. Apple quickly decided to appeal to this historic sanction.

More than a year and a half after the fine, the company was invited to plead its case before the judges of the Paris Court of Appeal, report our colleagues from Bloomberg. The iPhone maker defended the idea that the fine imposed last year was unfair and only politically motivated. Apple thus hopes to obtain the cancellation of the sanction.

Apple accuses the French Competition Authority of wanting to make an example

Before the judges, Melanie Thill-Tayara, Apple lawyer, assured that “The French Competition Authority clearly wanted to set an example by hitting hard against Apple”. By attacking the Californian group, the regulators would have wanted show that the American tech giants are not untouchable.

“None of the measures put in place by Apple has sought to disadvantage premium resellers”, advances the lawyer of the mark. The French Competition Authority accuses Apple of having openly prevented distributors from freely practicing their prices while controlling their promotional offers. Some distributors also complained that they were not always delivered at the same time as Apple Stores when new iPhones were released. This delay would be knowingly wanted by Apple to benefit its own stores.

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Thanks to these bans, the Californian brand would have sought to kill competition between distributors by favoring partners in its network. Tech Data and Ingram Micro, the two wholesalers of Apple in France, were also fined several million euros in the wake of Apple last year. Mirroring the brand of Tim Cook, they also seek to cancel the sanction.

Source: Bloomberg