Frances antitrust authority hit Apple with a €1.1 billion fine today for breaking competition rules, marking the regulators largest-ever financial penalty.
The Autorité de la concurrence watchdog said that Apple had entered into illegal competition-killing agreements with wholesale distributors Tech Data and Ingram Micro. The distributors were sanctioned €76.1 million and €63 million, respectively.
The watchog also found that Apple had imposed resale prices to resellers and abused its position as a must-have supplier, favoring its own retail suppliers.
“In view of the strong impact of these practices on competition in the distribution of Apple products via Apple premium resellers, the Authority imposes the highest penalty ever imposed in a case… It is also the highest sanction imposed on an economic operator, in this case Apple,” competition chief Isabelle de Silva said in a statement.
The authority investigated Apple and the two wholesalers following a complaint from premium reseller eBizcuss.com in 2012.
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