Paris Court Reduces Apple's Antitrust Fine from €1.1 Billion to €372 Million

Apple has managed to reduce the fine from a record €1.1 billion to €371.6 million that was imposed on the company in 2020 for anticompetitive agreements with two favoured distributors.

The court of appeal in Paris reduced Apple's fine to €371.6 million as the judges decided to reduce the duration of one of the infringements and lower the increases applied to the penalty that took into account the firm’s economic power. The court's ruling said:

The 90% multiple is disproportionate. A 50% multiple is sufficient to guarantee that the penalties are repressive and dissuasive.

In 2020, the French antitrust agency, Autorité de la concurrence, accused Apple of collusion with two distributors. The company interfered with the pricing policies of their selling its non-iPhone products, such as Apple Mac computers, and forced them to bring their price tags in line with those it charges at its retail and online shops.

Apple said it plans to lodge another appeal with France's highest court to reduce the fine to zero:

We believe it should be overturned in full.

For its part, France's antitrust agency is considering filing its own appeal.

We would like to reaffirm our desire to guarantee the dissuasive nature of our penalties, especially when it concerns market players of the caliber of Silicon Valley firms,

said Virginie Guin, an official at the Autorité.