Apple “considers that this cancellation should have been total and plans to appeal to cassation”. The Competition Authority, at the origin of the sanction, said that it “looked at the judgment and studied the possibility” of an appeal.
Le Monde With AFP
The Paris Court of Appeal reduced two thirds, Thursday, October 6, a record fine of 1.1 billion euros pronounced in March 2020 by the Competition Authority against Apple, accused of unfair practices at In mind its retailers in France, according to a source close to the file.
In the three initial grievances, two were retained by the court and certain charges were reduced, bringing the sanction to 371.6 million euros, according to this source. The judgment of the Court of Appeal will be made public on Friday, said the court, but the parties have already mentioned the possibility of a new appeal.
In a declaration, the American company “considers that this cancellation should have been total and plans to appeal to cassation”, adding:
“The decision concerns practices that go back more than ten years, which the competition authority itself has recognized as no longer being in force.”
The Competition Authority, at the origin of this sanction – the highest for the institution at the time – said that it “looked at the judgment and studied the possibility” of an appeal Faced with the highest jurisdiction in the judicial order.
“abuse of economic dependence”
At the time, the French authority responsible for combating anti -competitive practices had considered that Apple “had committed an abuse of economic dependence, with regard to its” premium “” retailers, specialized in high products range (excluding iPhone), “by subjecting them to inequitable and unfavorable commercial conditions compared to its network of integrated distributors”.
Concretely, Apple was accused of having implemented, within its distribution network in France, a distribution of products and customers with two wholesalers from December 2005 to March 2013, and of having caused one ” Abuse of economic dependence “vis-à-vis its independent resellers, mainly SMEs, from November 2009 to April 2013.
On the other hand, the Court of Appeal has given up sanctioning the American giant on the “imposed sale prices” to these independent resellers, a criticized practice of the company from October 2012 to April 2017.
The competition authority had been seized in 2012 by the Ebizcuss site, a distributor specializing in high -end Apple products, which was at the time the first exclusive dealer of the Apple brand in France: he had filed a complaint for unfair competition, abuse of dominant position and abuse of economic dependence.