The European authorities have launched an antitrust investigation into Apple's noncompetitive sales, The Financial Times reports citing the European Commission inquirer, which was sent to mobile operators to eliminate Apple's sales tactics.
According to the document, the European Commission received information that mobile operators and Apple concluded an agreement that could hurt competitiveness. To wit, the antitrust organization want to know if Apple forced operators to buy minimum number of iPhones. Moreover, the European Commission questions whether Apple's technical restrictions prevent iPhone 5 from being used on 4G networks in Europe. The EC reckons that the company could disable some functions on its products sold in certain EU countries.
Besides, others believe that Apple could demand similar or better distribution terms in comparison to the other smart phones producers.
It is not the first time when the European Commission scrutinizes Apple's pricing policy. In 2011 European antitrust services started investigation into Apple and 5 book publishing companies: Hachette Livre, Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, Penguin, and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holzbrinck. They were all suspected in price collusion on e-books available for downloading by the iPhone and iPad owners from iBook online store.
However, this case resulted in out-of-court settlement. Apple together with the publishers agreed to loose restriction for retail sellers of the e-books. The European Commission closed its investigation in December 2012.
