French competition watchdog raids offices Apple

Complaint
eBizcuss

The chain eBizcuss has filed a complaint against Apple in France quite some time ago. It
was an official reseller of Apple, but the chain felt left behind by the company behind the
iPad and the iPhone. New models were only made available
for sale sparsely, while the own stores of Apple were always fully stocked. In
the meantime the chain completely lost the battle for customers, because it went
bankrupt in the summer of 2012.

There have
also been complaints about Apple in other countries, for example in the
Netherlands. When the iPhone 5 launched it was not available at any Apple
Premium Reseller. At the launch of the iPhone 4S it had been the same story.

Fraud with
discounts

There is
also another investigation ongoing in France, looking into possible discount
fraud at resellers of Apple. They are said to have used the discounts to
increase profit margins and not to lower prices for customers.

This would
explain why the French also raided the two largest distributors of Apple, Tech
Data and Ingram Micro. Those two companies distribute the products of Apple to
their resellers and they also handle the discounts. Their involvement in the
investigation was confirmed by British technology website The Inquirer.