French Court Lowers Antitrust Fine Against Apple Over Third-Party Retailer Pricing

You know...when will governments realize that fining Apple $350 mil is NOTHING. Apple makes over $15 BILLION every 3 months. You fined them nothing and they are zero reasons to change. These laws need to be changed to be a % of yearly earnings. Instead of $350 Mil, it should have been 5% of 2020 profits. Maybe then Apple will take these seriously.

So Apple has rules and offered the contract in place. The Wholesaler decided to agree to those terms but claim apple is being anticompetitive. Truth is. They don’t have to offer their products to wholesalers and won’t if it impacts their bottom line. The problem is Apple is one of the few companies that is structured properly. There is no reason to loose money to do business just to claim market share. That is a common go to market strategy and the reason so few companies make it.

Why does an American company have to listen to some European country?

If you don’t like iPhones - don’t sell them.

Because that American company really wants money from Europeans.

Why does an American company have to listen to some European country?

If you don’t like iPhones - don’t sell them.

Well isn't it a bit simplistic way of thinking? 😅

You know...when will governments realize that fining Apple $350 mil is NOTHING. Apple makes over $15 BILLION every 3 months. You fined them nothing and they are zero reasons to change. These laws need to be changed to be a % of yearly earnings. Instead of $350 Mil, it should have been 5% of 2020 profits. Maybe then Apple will take these seriously.

372 million euros is roughly USD$365,635,080.00.

Is it a lot of money? Yes, to us common people. But not for Apple.

Apple had a profit of $19.4 billion last quarter ('https://www.macrumors.com/2022/07/28/apple-3q-2022-results/'). That means Apple's profit was roughly $215,555,555 per day. Apple can pay off this fine in less than 2 days.

I don't think it's reasonable for individual countries to fine Apple based on global profits. You should compare the fine to their French revenue.

You know...when will governments realize that fining Apple $350 mil is NOTHING. Apple makes over $15 BILLION every 3 months. You fined them nothing and they are zero reasons to change. These laws need to be changed to be a % of yearly earnings. Instead of $350 Mil, it should have been 5% of 2020 profits. Maybe then Apple will take these seriously.

You don't think Apple is entitled to the same fairness?

They dropped the price fixing charges. Apple is still appealing the ruling by saying that the FCA knows that the other charges are based on "practices from more than a decade ago that even the (French authority) recognised are no longer in use."