Apple's iPhone carrier contracts under investigation in France

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
French authorities have opened yet another investigation into Apple's business practices as the country's finance ministry begins probing contracts between Apple and its French carrier partners.

France
Apple's Carrousel du Louvre store in Paris


The investigation, which is said to be part of a larger probe into the relationships between mobile phone makers and wireless carriers, was first reported by French television news channel BFM TV and echoed by the Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch. It joins a similar inquiry underway by the European Commission.

Tensions are high between foreign government regulators and American tech companies as events like the recent NSA spying scandal spark concerns about privacy and data protection. Apple, Google (with its Android operating system), and Microsoft (in concert with recent acquistion Nokia) control almost 100 percent of the European smartphone market.

The finance ministry's probe appears to be unrelated to Cupertino's other legal troubles in the western European country ? the iPhone maker is already the subject of two ongoing antitrust examinations by France's Autorite de la Concurrence, the rough French equivalent of the United States's Federal Trade Commission. One investigation focuses on claims that Apple puts its French resellers at an unfair disadvantage compared to the company's first-party retail stores, while the other is looking into the practices of mobile application stores like Apple's App Store and Google's Google Play store.
«1

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 22

    France wants their blood money.

  • Reply 2 of 22
    herbapouherbapou Posts: 2,228member

    There is lots of FUD this morning.

  • Reply 3 of 22
    Good. I hope they also check HTC and Samsung though.
  • Reply 4 of 22
    DCRF probes are routine.
    Perhaps 1 in 20 of those end going in formal inquiry and/or trial.

    More, the carriers had a lot of troubles with DCRF lately, and if the latter found anything even vaguely troubling, they would launch another probe. We already know that parts of the carriers/mobile contracts were illegal with the fault on the carrier side.

    So, without more precise information, that is just the continuation of something existing.

    There is a third probe on stores due to an independant retailer bankrupt. This one afaik led nowhere.
  • Reply 5 of 22

    It's a Socialist thing, you wouldn't understand.

  • Reply 6 of 22
    herbapouherbapou Posts: 2,228member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Rot'nApple View Post


    It's a Socialist thing, you wouldn't understand.

     

    I wish I could have 6 to 8 weeks of vacation like they do over there :p

  • Reply 7 of 22
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by herbapou View Post

     

    There is lots of FUD this morning.


     

    Well, not necessarily. It stands to reason that France investigates this. It doesn't mean that they will find Apple in the wrong, nor that they're "after Apple's blood money" which is as ridiculous as it sounds (banks with unfair business practices, such as those profiteering from the Apple-stock-manipulations we've seen, are a much more valid target, aren't they?).

     

    Governments are there to protect the people, mainly against corporations and other countries. Google (Don't Be Evil), Apple (Think Different), LG (Life's Good), Samsung (Imagine). Should we really trust them because they have cool slogans that tell they're nice? Should we trust them because Brin looks like he knows how to party and Cook seems like the grandad you'd like to have?

     

    I'm much more concerned about the DoJ "let's help Amazon fix prices" full-frontal attack on Apple than by France's checks on possible issues with carrier contracts.

  • Reply 8 of 22
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,176member
    If this is the same issue as the EU was reportedly asked to look at I think it had to do with Apple quotas, and not necessarily in specific numbers but more so as a requirement they be based on a percentage of overall handset sales. Some questions about whether that would be a roundabout attempt to control carrier sales of competing OS's like Android or Windows.

    The French investigation is probably due to little movement so far on their investigation requests to the EU authority, so I suppose the French are doing it themselves now. That might indicate the EU doesn't plan on pursuing the complaints, which would be good news for Apple.
  • Reply 9 of 22
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by herbapou View Post

     

     

    I wish I could have 6 to 8 weeks of vacation like they do over there :p


     

    You're welcome to immigrate, I guess. Prepare to work as hard as a French, though. You'll probably turn out as annoyed, stressed, and unpleasant as the average Parisian in a few weeks, and your family will disown you  /s

     


    More seriously, I suppose you were joking, but I do feel there is a frustrating tendency lately to envy/pretend to envy other people (private sector workers "envying" civil servants on top of my list), but for nothing on Earth joining their ranks, because hey, their fate is actually not that good. 


     


    France is trying hard to recover from a world situation mainly caused by American banking behavior, which European middle class have ended up paying for through the international mechanisms everyone knows of (not that American middle class did not suffer, but at least they're American, they can express their unhappiness through their Senators/President votes... the Europeans cannot vote in America).


    So is Germany, so is the Netherlands, so is Italy, so is Greece, so is Spain. We're all, Canadians, Americans, Europeans, small potatoes in these events. Probably we should not be too concerned with these things, and focus on happiness for ourselves, for our loved ones, our friends, and whomever we can help out?

     

    Anyway, unrelated, does anyone think the new iPad is going to run the same kind of improvements to GPU rendering as the iPhone 5 does, or will they just use the same chip? In the first case, we'd have an absolutely incredible mobile platform for games... I can envision amazing possibilities here!

  • Reply 10 of 22
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    I'm just surprised the French Ministry of Culture haven't insisted yet that all the signs on Apple Stores, product , labels, decals on packaging and products are changed to French nomenclature … Pomme, Inc. not to mention Le MacLivre Pro, iMobile 5S and so on … (OK I had a problem with iPad … iBloc?)
  • Reply 11 of 22
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post



    I'm just surprised the French Ministry of Culture haven't insisted yet that all the signs on Apple Stores, product , labels, decals on packaging and products are changed to French nomenclature … Pomme, Inc. not to mention Le MacLivre Pro, iMobile 5S and so on … (OK I had a problem with iPad … iBloc?)

     

    Well, that's a pretty fun idea, as long as it stays in the world of irony. Please don't shout it too loud, please, as someone might hear it and make it a reality :/

     

    For iPad I'd say iTablette. Maybe iTable, since Moses came down the mountain with the Law of God on stone Tables...

     

    Scary idea ;)

  • Reply 12 of 22
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    Well, that's a pretty fun idea, as long as it stays in the world of irony. Please don't shout it too loud, please, as someone might hear it and make it a reality :/

    For iPad I'd say iTablette. Maybe iTable, since Moses came down the mountain with the Law of God on stone Tables...

    Scary idea ;)

    Ok I'll keep a low voice …;)
    Meanwhile back to my Pomme Ordinateur, I'm reinstalling Lion de Montagne.
  • Reply 13 of 22
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by lightknight View Post

     

     

    Well, that's a pretty fun idea, as long as it stays in the world of irony. Please don't shout it too loud, please, as someone might hear it and make it a reality :/

     

    For iPad I'd say iTablette. Maybe iTable, since Moses came down the mountain with the Law of God on stone Tables...

     

    Scary idea ;)


     

    Well, products names dont need to be translated, but all docs & texts up to advertisements need to be. You can use the original but with an asterisk giving the translation. This is the Allgood law (the ministry which passed it was M. Toubon which translate such), and after 20 years it is indeed a good thing.

     

    Result is sometimes Hilarious. Nike's slogan "Just Do It" was  given to "Juste Fais-le" which while a perfectly acurate translation is both not French and sounds incredibly vulgar. Was a genius coup of the agency.

     

    However, that is also because of that law that Danone was forced to translate in French all messages and menus of its ERP software and fined 1000€/day and user forced to use the english version after a 6 month grace period.   Strangely they found the budget very quickly for that when they had been unable to do it for 3 years.

     

    And no customer product can be sold here without a French documentation. Sometimes very bad yes, but that is better than finding a single sheet in chinese as I did sometimes when in Germany.

  • Reply 14 of 22
    There always investigating Apple for something. Apparently they have nothing better to do.
    I'm surprised that Apple keeps tolerating this government harassment. I would have pulled the stores out of France and told them to go suck on a champagne bottle myself already.
  • Reply 15 of 22

    When the EU says Apple has to load carrier software on the iPhone, Apple will pull out of Europe. Simple as that.

  • Reply 16 of 22
    herbapou wrote: »
    I wish I could have 6 to 8 weeks of vacation like they do over there :p

    Maybe the French could come up with their own cell phone manufacturer if they weren't so busy doing nothing.
  • Reply 17 of 22
    sensisensi Posts: 346member
    dasanman69 wrote: »
    Maybe the French could come up with their own cell phone manufacturer if they weren't so busy doing nothing.

    Never heard of Alcatel-Lucent, Archos, Orange, Sagem?

    Here a link to educate yourself: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_France
  • Reply 18 of 22
    sensisensi Posts: 346member
    b9bot wrote: »
    I would have pulled the stores out of France and told them to go suck on a champagne bottle myself already.
    That is why you are irrelevant and will never be anywhere close to any significant business decision making.
  • Reply 19 of 22
    sensisensi Posts: 346member
    Apple will pull out of Europe. Simple as that.
    Oh yeah, that's a sure way to go below the single digit market share asap, another brilliant proposition...
  • Reply 20 of 22
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by lukefrench View Post

     

     

    Well, products names dont need to be translated, but all docs & texts up to advertisements need to be. You can use the original but with an asterisk giving the translation. This is the Allgood law (the ministry which passed it was M. Toubon which translate such), and after 20 years it is indeed a good thing.

     

    Result is sometimes Hilarious. Nike's slogan "Just Do It" was  given to "Juste Fais-le" which while a perfectly acurate translation is both not French and sounds incredibly vulgar. Was a genius coup of the agency.

     

    However, that is also because of that law that Danone was forced to translate in French all messages and menus of its ERP software and fined 1000€/day and user forced to use the english version after a 6 month grace period.   Strangely they found the budget very quickly for that when they had been unable to do it for 3 years.

     

    And no customer product can be sold here without a French documentation. Sometimes very bad yes, but that is better than finding a single sheet in chinese as I did sometimes when in Germany.


    I personally find that there is a war going on, and only the French and the Japanese are really aware of that war. 

    It's a war to protect your language, your culture, and your way of thinking. Of course, it stems from the fact I have the basics of 8 languages (Hindi, Russian, Japanese, German, Dutch, French, English, Italian), pretty different ones at that. My strong belief is that languages shape the way you think, and therefore protecting your language is protecting your way of thinking. Think Different, pretty much.

    I also spent enough years in China and Malaysia to have a basic understanding that these languages also shape your thought differently than the others I heard, but I never spent the time to acquire the basics. Maybe in time... siki siki, lama lama, jadi bukit, as they say there.

    Therefore, I'm utterly convinced of the necessity of laws protecting your language. However, going to the point where brand names have to be translated is plain ridiculous. Calling an email a courriel is fine by me. Calling an iPad an "iTablette" is a ridiculous idea.

     

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Sensi View Post





    Oh yeah, that's a sure way to go below the single digit market share asap, another brilliant proposition...

     

    Agreed. Good thing is, Apple doesn't always listen to TS, or iPhone 4 would have been called iPhone 5...

Sign In or Register to comment.