France fined Apple 9 thousand crores, the company accused of slowing down on the pretext of updating the iPhone
France’s Competition Authority on Monday imposed a fine of US $ 1.2 billion, or about Rs 9,100 crore, on American tech giant Apple. The Competition Authority has imposed this penalty on Apple for its non-competitive behavior towards independent retail distributors, abusing its economic status.
The biggest fine ever imposed on a company in France
According to media reports, Chief of Competition Authority Isabel de Silva said this was the largest fine ever imposed on a company in France. In addition, Apple’s wholesale distributor Tech Data and Ingram Micro have also been fined Euro 140 million. Both of these distributors have been engaged in tandem with Apple to play with the interests of smaller distributors. The authority has said that both these distributors charged the same price from smaller retailers for Apple’s device, at which price the device was available at Apple’s online store or physical store. In 2012, an independent premium reseller from Apple alleged non-competitive practice.
Last month itself, a fine of 200 crores was imposed
Apple was fined in France only 25 million euros, or about 200 crore rupees, last month. The fine was leveled after allegations of deliberately slowing down on the pretext of updating the old iPhone. The investigation was launched in January 2018 after a complaint by the HOP Association in this matter. In this case the company was found guilty of concealing information from iPhone consumers.
Cases of slowing iPhone are also running in America
Apple will pay users $ 500 million (Rs 3,600 crore) to settle the cases of intentionally slowing down the old iPhone. This information appeared in documents filed in San Jose district court. According to this, all the affected users of America will be given 25-25 dollars. However, depending on the number of claims and the amount of court-approved legal expenses, the amount received by users may be more or less. The court may approve the settlement on 3 April.
After the displeasure of the user and the tech analyst, Apple considered the mistake
American customers who bought an iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus, iPhone 7, 7 Plus or SE before December 21, 2017, and had a problem with the phone being slow, can make claims. Many Apple users and tech analysts complained in December 2017 that their iPhone slowed down after software updates. He said that Apple did this intentionally so that people were forced to buy the latest iPhone.
