The Federal Antimonopoly service (FAS) of Russia has postponed for the middle of March the case against Apple on the coordination of prices on the iPhone. It is reported TASS with reference to the service representative.
“In the course of the proceedings in respect of LLC “Apple Rus”, the Apple Holding B. V., Apple Sales Ireland Apple Operations International, Apple Inc. the parties announced the conclusion on the circumstances of the case. The Commission meeting will be scheduled for mid-March,” – said the FAS, noting that the new meeting date will be announced later.
The Antimonopoly Agency has repeatedly postponed the proceedings in connection with necessity of additional collection of documents.
In February 2016 FAS retailers suspected of price collusion in the sale of iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, which at that time was the last models of the popular smartphone of the American Corporation.
Office for citizen decided to request information from the 16 retailers, including Euroset, Eldorado, Svyaznoy, re:Store, Ozon.ru “Citylink”, Media Markt, “Mobilend” (brand of “Know-how”), “MegaFon” and “VimpelCom” (brand “Beeline”). The request for pricing mechanisms in the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus were also sent to the online Apple store.
Check the FAS revealed that from the beginning of official sales iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus in Russia, (that is, from the end of September 2015) most Resellers have set the same prices of smartphones and hold them for a certain time. A similar situation was identified with the previous iPhone models.
The office suggested that such overlap may result from the coordination of pricing an American Corporation, so the “recommended” price of the iPhone was made by the Russian Resellers as required.
In August 2016, the FAS filed a case against Apple. The iPhone maker, in turn, said that does not dictate retailers price. Retailers also noted that set prices themselves on the basis of the existing market.
The head of FAS Igor Artemyev at the beginning of February stated that the position of the Antimonopoly service and the Apple on the possible coordination of prices on the iPhone “closer”, and the settlement agreement is still possible.
