Apple pledges $84M to fund programs in bid to end South Korea antitrust investigation

Apple has proposed paying out 100 billion won ($84 million) to fund support programs to assist consumers and small businesses, in a bid to settle an antitrust investigation by South Korean regulators.

The Korea Fair Trade Commission allowed Apple to offer a proposal for measures to help ensure it complied with local anti-competitive laws. On Monday, Apple's South Korean business put forward a package of measures it hoped would appease the regulator.

Of the 100 billion won, 40 billion will be used to construct a center to support research and development activities for small manufacturers in the country, reports Reuters. Approximately 25 billion won is set aside to create an "academy" to educate the country's developers, and another 25 billion won will be used to offer consumer discounts on warranty repair costs, as well as other benefits.

The proposals are part of efforts by Apple to close out an investigation by the Korea Fair Trade Commission into claims Apple forced local telecoms providers to pay the costs of warranty services and television advertising. The investigation ran from 2016 and included raids on local offices, with a regulatory hearing in January 2019 indicating the regulators believed Apple was taking advantage of carriers via its advertising activities.

The Commission advised in July 2019 it was suspending the investigation while it was considering a consent decree proposal, one where Apple would perform a series of remedial actions to redress the accusations.

If the consent decree and the finance package is accepted by the regulator, the investigation will be closed without offering a final determination of whether or not Apple actually broke competition law.

16 Comments

revenant 610 comments · 15 Years

About 4 years ago

anti-competitive? have they met Samsung? apple maps (and google maps) in Korea are just not good--why? because of fair and competitive (ha) laws aimed to help naver and daum/kakoa. no Apple Pay? I am sure it is just because it is not up to snuff here where only Korean companies are smart enough they can do it (though I believe there is one Chinese company).

mr lizard 354 comments · 15 Years

“We’re open to bribes to drop investigations into your potentially illegal activity. What have you got to offer?”

CloudTalkin 916 comments · 5 Years

revenant said:

anti-competitive? have they met Samsung? apple maps (and google maps) in Korea are just not good--why? because of fair and competitive (ha) laws aimed to help naver and daum/kakoa. no Apple Pay? I am sure it is just because it is not up to snuff here where only Korean companies are smart enough they can do it (though I believe there is one Chinese company).

For the sake of conversation let's say you're right. How would that mitigate the accusations against Apple? Apple's sales partners were accusing them of anti-competitive behavior. Pointing at Samsung and yelling, "LOOK OVER THERE AT THEM!!" doesn't actually address the issue. It just looks like an attempt to deflect. Wondering if you have an opinion about the actual topic.

This issue seems pretty cut and dried imo. Apple made their partners pay for Apple's TV advertising and the cost warranty repairs (would really crappy if Apple also received money for Applecare). Their legal gymnastics ran it's course and Apple decided it would be cheaper to settle than risk a verdict. Simple business decision.

Rayz2016 6957 comments · 8 Years

I wonder how they forced them? I thought the Koreans only bought home-grown phones.

CloudTalkin said:

revenant said:

anti-competitive? have they met Samsung? apple maps (and google maps) in Korea are just not good--why? because of fair and competitive (ha) laws aimed to help naver and daum/kakoa. no Apple Pay? I am sure it is just because it is not up to snuff here where only Korean companies are smart enough they can do it (though I believe there is one Chinese company).

For the sake of conversation let's say you're right. How would that mitigate the accusations against Apple? Apple's sales partners were accusing them of anti-competitive behavior. Pointing at Samsung and yelling, "LOOK OVER THERE AT THEM!!" doesn't actually address the issue. It just looks like an attempt to deflect. Wondering if you have an opinion about the actual topic.

This issue seems pretty cut and dried imo. Apple made their partners pay for Apple's TV advertising and the cost warranty repairs (would really crappy if Apple also received money for Applecare). Their legal gymnastics ran it's course and Apple decided it would be cheaper to settle than risk a verdict. Simple business decision.

apple's sales partners here in Korea charge the same amount apple does, no less. they still do, and two of them only sell what apple sells (though they seem to be allowed to sell whatever cases they want). mobile carriers make a fortune off of iPhone. the third party places for repair over here have consistently held a stupidly high bar for free repairs under apple care. they also, as my wife and I found out, do not use apple certified parts. we replaced her MacBook Air battery and received a new one that charged just as badly as the one we replaced--opened it up and it was not an apple battery but some Chinese knockoff (sorry I did not take pics it was 5 years ago). she also spilled juice other MacBook keyboard and we took it in. sticky keys are not covered under AppleCare so we paid over $600 for a new keyboard and the repair took a whole week. When the apple store opened here we took it in because she said it never felt the same since the repair. they replaced the keyboard for FREE and told us it was not an apple certified keyboard. we showed them the receipt and we were told that a lot of people are coming to have their items that were repaired at the third party repair shops be repaired again with the apple store finding the parts are not oem. a friend of mine took his iPhone to a third party repair place (he had apple care) and they said the issue was his logic board but that apple care did not cover it and it would cost him ₩800,000 to have it replaced. apple store came to town and honoured his apple care and replaced the phone. seems to me the third part places made plenty of money while saving on parts by using inferior ones.

all I can do for offering proof is relay conversations I have had with my friend who works at Samsung (he works on mobile regulatory issues and contracts for south east Asia and Australia). he said Samsung spends a large amount of money to lobby the government to keep as much as they can in their hands when it comes to maps and things like contactless payments. this is obviously not proof for anyone who does not know him or myself, and clearly not in a forum.