Apple fined $1.2B by French antitrust authorities
The implied populism is disturbing. There are no facts presented, everyone is jumping on memes.<p>The TC article [1] has considerably more information though still missing some fine points.<p>The details of the charges are not going to benefit from transparency, as it doesn&#x27;t look like some kind of solid case - it seems that Apple was engaged in some otherwise normal business practices.<p>They required their resellers to sell at certain price points, and during times of short supply, they favoured some channels over others. This is not anti-competitive really, it&#x27;s normal practice.<p>If the French government applied such rules fairly and broadly there are probably any number of businesses that would be found to be committing such practices.<p>The French have been outdone in so many areas, they&#x27;re now engaged in a new form of a trade war, which is simply to grab surpluses of foreign companies as they can. And who, even among intelligent, literate people who are responsible enough to grasp material facts is going to care one bit?<p>It&#x27;s perfectly fine if France and the EU want to be more assertive in applying their legislation, but the rules have to be clear, they have to be applied impartially and universally, not in a punitive manner.<p>Even better, France needs to produce exceptional companies that produce surpluses - much better to be in a situation where you have &#x27;the great companies&#x27; and the risk is having someone DJ Trump screaming murder, as opposed to digging up dirt on otherwise well run companies in your own borders.<p>Also - the EU&#x27;s ridiculous taxation scheme, which allows Google and FB to declare most of their profits in Ireland and skip paying taxes in France is <i>their</i> problem, not the problem of foreign nationals who are just following the laws. The architect of said massive loopholes is none other than outgoing EU Commission Pres. JC Junker, so the hypocrisy there is nigh.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;techcrunch.com&#x2F;2020&#x2F;03&#x2F;16&#x2F;apple-fined-record-1-2b-in-france-over-anti-competitive-sales-practices&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;techcrunch.com&#x2F;2020&#x2F;03&#x2F;16&#x2F;apple-fined-record-1-2b-in...</a>