PARIS (Reuters) – The Paris Court of Appeal on Thursday lowered the amount of the fine imposed on the American giant Apple by the Competition Authority in 2020 for illicit agreement with distributors and “abuse of economic dependence” to 372 million euros, against 1.1 billion euros at first instance, we learned from a source familiar with the matter.
According to the source, the court decided to reduce the fine after dismissing one of the three main complaints against Apple.
The court also lowered the rate that had been retained in 2020 to set the amount of the fine, added the same source.
The fine of 1.1 billion euros was at the time the largest fine ever imposed by the French regulator on an individual company and against which Apple had appealed.
Two years ago, the Autorité de la concurrence accused the American group of having “abusively exploited” the economic dependence of certain distributors on it, “by subjecting them to unfair and unfavorable commercial conditions in relation to its network of integrated distributors”.
Apple could not immediately be reached Thursday for comment.
(Report Mathieu Rosemain, French version Matthieu Protard, edited by Sophie Louet and Kate Entringer)
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