France fines Apple Inc €1.1bn

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Apple Inc was on Monday slammed with a fine of €1.1 billion Euros (1.2 billion dollars) by French authorities, for making anti-competitive agreements with two firms in its distribution network.

The authorities said Apple had abused the economic dependence of its premium resellers. The products involved iPads but not iPhones.

Reports have it that the ruling is in response to a complaint by an Apple trader, eBizcuss, in 2012.

“The two firms, Tech Data and Ingram Micro, were hit respectively with fines of 76.1 million Euros and 62.9 million Euros,’’ the French competition authority announced.

Apple did not react immediately to the announcement but had previously rejected the accusations.