Apple's French headquarters raided by government competition authority
The French government's competition authority recently conducted a raid of Apple's local headquarters that lasted 24 hours, seizing documents as part of an ongoing government antitrust investigation.
Details of the raid were first reported last week by Mac4Ever, and were later confirmed by LesEchos.fr. Investigators are said to be interested in the relationship between Apple and its distributors in France.
The investigation was reportedly spurred by a premium reseller in France, eBizcuss, which went bankrupt last year. The company then filed a complaint against Apple accusing it of unfair competition.
Apple was accused of favoring its own retail stores rather than resellers like eBizcuss, which exclusively sold Apple products. The reseller said it was often difficult to obtain the latest models of new Apple products, while Apple's own stores were well stocked.
The French competition authority has also reportedly taken interest in Apple's iOS App Store, after the company increased the minimum selling price for magazines and newspapers last year. The authority is said to be looking into whether Apple is abusing its power for digital downloads as well.
Apple also came under fire from the French government last month when the company ward ordered to pay $6.5 million in 2011 taxes for iPad sales. The mandate came from a French professional association that collects revenue for artists' copyrighted works.
Details of the raid were first reported last week by Mac4Ever, and were later confirmed by LesEchos.fr. Investigators are said to be interested in the relationship between Apple and its distributors in France.
The investigation was reportedly spurred by a premium reseller in France, eBizcuss, which went bankrupt last year. The company then filed a complaint against Apple accusing it of unfair competition.
Apple was accused of favoring its own retail stores rather than resellers like eBizcuss, which exclusively sold Apple products. The reseller said it was often difficult to obtain the latest models of new Apple products, while Apple's own stores were well stocked.
The French competition authority has also reportedly taken interest in Apple's iOS App Store, after the company increased the minimum selling price for magazines and newspapers last year. The authority is said to be looking into whether Apple is abusing its power for digital downloads as well.
Apple also came under fire from the French government last month when the company ward ordered to pay $6.5 million in 2011 taxes for iPad sales. The mandate came from a French professional association that collects revenue for artists' copyrighted works.
Comments
In the town where I live, the third party Apple exclusive retailer closed 2 weeks before the Apple Store opened. He had the *brains* to realise the writing was on the wall, unlike the person suing in this story.
The loss of a business is unfortunate no doubt, but this happens when larger retailers compete against boutiques.
What they don't realize is if it wasn't for Apple in the first place they would have never had a business. There is more money than ever to be made in the Apple world, but it isn't in Apple hardware sales.
I think, its fun to be in France to see stupid things like this.
WOW....you can get Apple products....in an Apple store first? It has to be a conspiracy........when high demand items are shipped to their own stores first? Oh dare they! /s
But Apple is not going to stop opening new stores, if Apple starts building a store you should know that it's time to shut your own operation down and find a new town to setup in.
I though Android was winning in Europe.
it's just an judiciary intervention to obtains documents before they can be destroyed or hidden.
it's like your typical FBI raid for business cases.
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"Who would want to do business in that country?"
anyone.
It is about Apple coercing its partners to conform to costly specifications (size of the showfloor, type of furnitures, shelving layout etc.) in order to get the "Apple premium reseller" tag, then fucking with them by supplying only its own Stores with the latests products.
In Europe, Apple sales were really bad in the 1990s (marketshare was half the US one) and if not for enthusiast Apple resellers like eBizcuss at that time, Apple would have not had much places to sell the iMac when the first one hit the shelves%u2026
eBizcuss wasn't a small store, it covered dozens of Apple Premium Resellers in both France and Belgium. Nor was it the only reseller to ask for someone to have a look in Apple practices.
Apple wants to do business in EU. They have to conform to EU laws. That's it. If EU citizens money is good enough for Apple, they should stop fucking with our laws
French Apple Stores aren't paying taxes: Apple built an Apple Store EU subsidiary which buys product from Apple US, at retail price. Because french Apple stores bear payroll charges too (which are quite high in France), they are losing money and avoid any taxes on profit by doing so.
I admire Apple for their products and their commitment to quality and innovation but as a company, when they do business outside of US, they tend to behave like bastards%u2026
"...Apple wants to do business in EU. They have to conform to EU laws..."
Not being famliar with French law, specifically what laws have been broken?
suggest you take all your apple business to 'samsung' as they think that they
are the flavor of the day.
ps: samsung just released a $35 billion loss. watch out below.
If a store claims that Apple isn't giving them enough product, and therefore Apple is favoring their own stores, then I think it boils down to two things:
Has the store provided sufficient evidence to Apple proving what kind of demand they have, thereby establishing the shipment quantities they need?
Assuming Apple has this information from all such stores, have they responded appropriately and to the best of their ability?
Quote:
Originally Posted by stephane36
It is not about Apple Stores competing fairly with Premium resellers and still having the preference of customers. It is not about an unnamed computer store failing miserably beacause it operates a few blocks away from a brand new Apple store either.
It is about Apple coercing its partners to conform to costly specifications (size of the showfloor, type of furnitures, shelving layout etc.) in order to get the "Apple premium reseller" tag, then fucking with them by supplying only its own Stores with the latests products...
All excellent points. And thanks for adding so much background to this discussion.
1) It's not a RAID as in "policemen and SWAT teams screaming and knocking doors down". It was a quiet office search, under a warrant, and with the presence of an attorney to ensure all is going ok. The same kind of thing happens ALL the time in the US, when FBI investigates some company.
I blame the article title first, the quick to jump to idiotic conclusions readers second.
2) @cfugle """Socialist attitudes, socialist gov't, non-competitive attitudes prevail"""
Did you even UNDERSTOOD the reason for this incident? If anything it's the fucking opposite. It was made to ENSURE competiveness (that is, against alleged anti-competitive practices by Apple).
Well, Apple could always close up shop and you could take a train to a neighboring EU country for your Apple needs.
Do other companies not employ similar tactics? I understand this may be difficult to answer as no other technology company has the scope of products and services which are easily accessed online or in a wholly owned retail setting such as Apple possesses.
I always love when the eurotrash comes out to bash Americans.