“An authorized reseller in France has filed a lawsuit against Apple alleging unfair competition, mirroring complaints by United States resellers that Apple favors its own retail stores over resellers when it ships new products,” Gary Allen reports for ifoAppleStore.

“As reported by Le Figaro, eBizcuss CEO François Prudent says his 16 locations in France suffered a 30 percent decline in business during the third quarter of 2011 after the supply of iPad 2 and MacBook Air laptops from Apple dried up,” Allen reports. “In the fourth quarter, his company could not obtain a supply of the iPhone 4s, Prudent said. He traced the product shortage began to November 2009 when the Carousel del Louvre Apple store opened in Paris, the country’s first.”

Allen reports, “In 2003—two years after Apple opened its first retail store, a northern California reseller [MACAdam] filed a federal lawsuit alleging Apple failed to ‘reasonably provide merchandise, goods, services and support’ that the reseller sold… Another reseller, MacSolutions Inc., also filed a lawsuit over similar issues in January 2006. That lawsuit was settled the next year.”

Read more in the full article here.