The Federal Antimonopoly service (FAS) initiated administrative case against the Russian “daughter” of Apple with the aim of collecting from the company of the fine, reports “Interfax” with reference to the press service of the Ministry. The Agency acknowledged the Californian giant guilty of coordinating the prices of the iPhone in Russia.
In March, the FAS found the company “eppl Rus” guilty of violating the law “On protection of competition”. As explained by the then Deputy head of Antimonopoly Department Andrey tsarikovskiy, an American Corporation found guilty of coordinating prices on iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. While Tsarikovsky noted that the price of iPhone 7 violations were found.
Then Tsarikovsky noted that the Agency plans to initiate an administrative case against “girls” Apple for the purposes of the penalty. The amount of the fine will affect a number of mitigating circumstances, including cooperation “eppl Rus” with the service.
Antitrust case against Apple, LLC “Apple Rus”, the Apple Holding B. V., Apple Sales Ireland Apple Operations International, on suspicion of coordinating the prices of iPhone 6 was opened in August 2016. The case was filed after the citizen, who claimed that the 16 Resellers set the same prices for the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, appeared on the Russian market in October 2015.
According to the Agency, Apple controlled the retail price of the iPhone, and in the case of the establishment Resellers “wrong prices” exerted pressure on them. As evidence of the FAS used the correspondence between the retailers and Apple representatives.
For example, July 22, 2015. received email ‘ on domain apple.com: the message contained a screenshot of the announcement of the iPhone price drops and the comment “That’s a terrible deal”. In other correspondence, the retailer complained to Apple that other shopping network “acting up with the prices” and asked them to apply the “axe in the form of deliveries of new models.”
The decision on penalty will be made within two months. The definition States that the representative “eppl Rus” 26 may should be in the FAS for explanations. Also the company must provide anti-monopoly service employees who are responsible for working with retail chains and partners in the direction of the TV.
Deputy head of Department FAS on struggle against cartels Andrey Filimonov reported earlier that if price fixing is proven, sellers can be fined in the amount of 1-15% of the total iPhone sales in 2015.
