Daniel Eran Dilger
Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission has slapped Apple with a $670,000 fine for interfering with mobile providers and handset retailers' pricing.
The commission accused Apple of violating the nations Fair Trade Act by advising mobile carriers on how much they should charge for iPhones, stating that Apple had no right to govern how the carriers sold iPhones after having sold the carriers distribution rights.
A report by the Wall Street Journal indicated that the fine involved resale and distribution rights rather than just pricing, noting that the commission maintained that Taiwan's three major carriers Chunghwa Telecom, Far Eastone Telecommunication, and Taiwan Mobile "can distribute or resell iPhones at their complete discretion after paying Apple for those rights."
The decision applies only to iPhones and not other devices such as iPads or Macs; mobile phones and carriers are subject to unique regulations in most countries.
The report cited a FTC statement saying, "through the email correspondence between Apple and these three telecom companies we discovered the companies submit their pricing plans to Apple to be approved or confirmed before the products hit the market."
Bigger fine than Samsung's slander and false advertising put together
Apple hasn't responded to the accusations, although the FTC notes that Apple can appeal the ruling. If it does not comply, however, the commission has threatened an even larger fine.
Earlier this year, Taiwan's FTC also fined Samsung for "dirty tricks" involving orchestrating an internet smear campaign against Taiwanese phone maker HTC and making false advertising claims related to a Galaxy-branded handset.
Both fines against Samsung combined totaled $442,000, considerably less than the since fee Taiwan is seeking to charge Apple in the support of Taiwan's carriers.
Charles Martin
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
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Andrew Orr
9 Comments
Let the haters hate.
Lol from apple violating the law to samsung. FTC violation to eBook shenanigans.
there goes 28.6 seconds of revenue
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I always thought a fair-trade price was determined by the manufacturer not the reseller. I guess in Taiwan it's the other way around. On the other hand, Apple has charged these resellers a certain amount of money with what looks like no right to determine anything other than the fact the resellers owe them money for every iPhone they receive from Apple. If they don't sell some phones, tough, they still have to pay for them. (I haven't read the distribution rights but I can't imagine Apple would let them return un-sold iPhones if they had to give up reasonable fair-trade rights manufacturers usually have.)