France fines Apple £1bn for anti-competitive acts

French regulators have fined Apple 1.1 billion euros (£1 billion) for striking deals to keep prices high, in the biggest ever such sanction by the country’s competition authority.

The agency said Apple and top re-sellers agreed to align prices with Apple’s own pricing for its iPads and some other products. The deals did not concern iPhones.

Two “premium” French Apple re-sellers, Tech Data and Ingram Micro, were also fined a total of 139 million euros (£126 million). The competition authority said Apple and the re-sellers agreed not to compete.

“Apple abusively exploited” distributors’ dependence on the tech giant, the authority wrote, and “prevented competition among different Apple distribution channels”.

It said that, in turn, hurt consumers.