For American tech giant Apple Inc., this year seems to be full of hardship. First, Apple had to shut down its stores in China and other countries due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Another blow came from the French Competition Authority (ADLC) which imposed a heavy fine of €1.1 billion on the company for anti-competitive behavior. The regulator said Apple had conspired with two wholesalers to align prices, thus limiting wholesale competition for some of the Apple products. Both French companies, Tech Data and Ingram Micro, received fines of €76.1 million and €62.9 million respectively. The ADLC representatives commented on the situation: “Apple and its two wholesalers agreed to not compete against each other and prevent resellers from promoting competition between each other, thus sterilizing the wholesale market for Apple products.” The French watchdog considered such actions a violation of fair market competition. Notably, this was not Apple’s first penalty this year. In January, the American tech-giant was ordered by the central court in Los Angeles to pay $1.1 billion for violating four patents on Wi-Fi technology.
