Apple's antitrust fine that was levied in France was slammed by the company's lawyer, saying that move was politically motivated.
The lawyer who represents Apple said that the French regulator is set out to grab Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon to be seen taking on massive tech companies.
The antitrust fine was based on Apple being found guilty of preventing its competitors from selling its products among resellers and forcing others to sell at the same prices as them.
Apple Antitrust Fine
In March 2020, Apple was served a 1.1 billion euro fine or $1.3 billion fine in France. The French regulators said that the tech giant had created illegal agreements within its distribution network and abused its resellers' power.
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The decision to fine Apple came from the competition authorities after the situation was investigated for years, according to 9to5Mac.
Aside from Apple's fines, two of the company's wholesalers, Tech Data and Ingram Micro, were also fined for agreeing on unlawful prices. They were fined 76.1 million euros or $88 million and 62.9 million euros or $73 million, respectively.
The regulator said that the agreements that the tech giant made with wholesalers meant that they had secretly agreed not to compete with each other and had illegally fixed the prices of the products.
According to CNBC, Apple was disheartened by the decision because it believed it had gone against the legal precedent that all companies in France rely on.
The tech giant also said that the decision would cause chaos for companies across industries.
In February 2020, Apple was fined 25 million euros or $30 million for the iPhone battery throttling debacle, which was seen as a form of forced obsolescence. This is due to Apple's poor way of explaining how it changed its policies.
Apple's Appeal
Apple said at the time that it was fined that the company would appeal, and on Nov. 5, made its case in court, according to Bloomberg.
The tech giant accused the regulators of bending the antitrust rules for political objectives when they doled out a $1.3 billion fine as part of their campaign to crack down on massive companies.
Apple's lawyer, Melanie Thill-Tayara, told the Paris court of appeals judges that France had intentionally hit the iPhone maker because it wanted to make a mark.
Thill-Tayara stated that none of the measures created by the tech company had negatively affected its resellers.
The lawyer added that the penalty was inflated by numerous factors, and it was also influenced by the allegations.
The iPhone maker allegedly convinced resellers that they were not to change the prices of Apple products and they should stick with the fixed prices. Resellers who agreed continued to be supplied with the products, and those who didn't were cut off by Apple.
The company claimed that the products were out of stock even though they were available and could be purchased in Apple Stores.
The report from Bloomberg does not clarify Apple's defense. It shows that there is a lot of complication that needs to be sorted, as the Paris court gave itself almost a year to study the materials and the arguments before it reached a decision.
The ruling for the case has been scheduled for Nov. 3, 2022.
Apple has been hit by numerous lawsuits worldwide. In March, Apple was accused by French users of running personalized ads without consent.
Apple is also set to face DOJ lawsuit due to questionable iPhone dominance in the market.
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This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Sophie Webster
