“Russia, the land of ballet, borscht, and the world’s largest ceremonial bell, is apparently also home to practices of a more unsavory sort — price fixing,” Kyle Wiggers reports for Digital Trends. “That’s according to Russia’s Federal Anti-Monopoly Service (FAS), which has officially found iPhone maker Apple guilty of price-fixing devices in the country.”
“The allegations apparently sprung from “a citizen with information” about alleged incongruities in Russia’s smartphone resale market. According to FAS investigators, 16 unaffiliated third-party retailers maintained an agreed-upon price for Apple’s iPhone 6s and 6s Plus models ‘for a certain period of time’ — as early as October 2015,” Wiggers reports. “According to a report from The Financial Times, Apple illegally ordered retailers to fix prices of both the iPhone 5 and iPhone 6 models. Specifically, retailers were allegedly told to sell the iPhone at a certain price, and if a retailer was selling the phone at an unsuitable price, they were ordered to change the price or have their sales agreement terminated.”
“It’s possible that Apple could be facing fines in Russia, but any punishment has yet to be announced. The worst-case scenario for the company is that it will have to pay up 15 percent of its sales in Russia,” Wiggers reports. “Apple characterized the agency’s accusations as baseless. “Resellers set their own prices for the Apple products they sell in Russia and around the world,” a spokesperson for the company told Fortune.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Pfft.
pfft x infinity +1….even if prices are fixed, no one is forced to buy an iPhone in Russia or The Netherlands or China or the United States. There’s a surefire cure for price fixing: free market enterprise.
this reeks of government extortion.
Maybe they can ask El Cheeto Traitor to put in a good word?
nah, they already have all the uranium they need from The Clot…
I think this botvinnik✓ᵀᴿᵁᴹᴾ like talk to himself probably gave himself a star in the process… Smirk
lol, I had a feeling the “two nooses” wouldn’t make it.
Russia: Criminal Nation. They have a ‘Federal Anti-Monopoly Service’. And said service wants to prosecute a single company for setting the prices of their own, and only their own, products amidst a wide market of alternative other manufacturer similar products.
Russian kiddies: That’s not a monopoly. Get a dictionary. Get some international law books as well. Hire some qualified international lawyers. You’ve lost track of the meaning of justice. Blame the aftermath of your ‘communist’ heritage, get over it and move on into the real world. Just a suggestion.
….as is Communist China. but that’s okay, they make iPhones!
:::BREAKING NEWS:::
MSNBC reporter Rachel Madcow breaks story on Lincoln’s 1863 tax returns. Brian Williams confirms.
bwahahahahahaha