French watchdog to take €1.1bn bite out of Apple over 'anticompetitive' practices

The French competition watchdog, Autorité de la Concurrence, has slapped Apple with a stonking €1.1bn fine over claims the Californian fruit farm had artificially limited supply of its kit to wholesalers. The Autorité de la Concurrence also issued punishing sanctions to wholesalers Tech Data and Ingram Micro, which were fined …

[Anonymous Coward]

Shed a tear?

With over $57b in net profit last year, Apple will carry on (after spending millions on lawyers).

The fine seems reasonable and the Apple practices are well known among those who care.

[MrDamage]

Re: Shed a tear?

I expect them to appeal. It's one thing when the "fine" is only 30 seconds worth of profits for the year, but with this being close to 2% of their net profit, they're going to cry foul.

[Dazed and Confused]

Re: Shed a tear?

They'll probably be more concerned with not having other countries thinking "I'll 'ave a bit of that" and following suite.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Shed a tear?

Yep, if France is fining them far more than they profit in France they might just decide they are better off not doing any business in the country going forward.

[MrMerrymaker]

A percentage

A billion sounds a lot but with their profits?

Fine them ten percent of turnover.

[sanmigueelbeer]

Just you wait.

President Trump will retaliate against the French for this.

He is going slap a 200% tarriff on all French-made iPhones. (That'll teach the French a lesson!)

[Michael Wojcik]

And the House will pass a resolution rebranding it the "Freedom Phone".