Staff stand in an Apple store with no customers after it was closed on Regents Street in London, Britain March 14, 2020 ReutersThe authority found three areas of anti-competitive behaviourFrance's competition authority slapped a record $1.2 billion fine on US tech giant Apple on Monday for anti-competitive behaviour towards its independent retail distributors. The authority said it found that Apple acted to prevent independent retailers in France from competing on price and abused its economic power over them. The case began in 2012 when one of Apple's independent premium resellers complained about uncompetitive practices that included squeezing off supplies in favour of its own stores. The first was that Apple and its wholesalers agreed not to compete against one another. Second, independent retailers "could not without risk undertake promotions or lower prices, which led to an an alignment of retail prices," said de Silva.

Source: Dhaka Tribune March 17, 2020 06:00 UTC