“The High Court of Paris on Friday denied Apple’s request for an injunction that would have blocked activist group Attac from protesting at the company’s retail stores across France, as it has been doing for the past several months,” Joe Rossignol reports for MacRumors.
“The order states that the mere presence of protesters at Apple’s stores in France, without violence, vandalism, or customers being blocked from entering the premises, is not enough to justify limiting the group’s rights to freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly protected by human rights laws in Europe,” Rossignol reports. “The court added that Attac acted in accordance with the European Union’s Statutes of the Association, and defined the protests as a matter of public interest. Apple has been ordered to pay 2,000 euros to cover Attac’s legal fees, according to the order, which was earlier reported by French website MacGeneration.”
“Apple previously said it has ‘a long tradition of supporting individuals and groups that peacefully express their opinions,’ but it accused Attac’s activists of “vandalizing shops and endangering the security of staff and customers,” which it finds unacceptable, according to court documents obtained by The Guardian,” Rossignol reports. “During a stunt at an Apple store in Aix-en-Provence last November, for example, activists painted “pay your taxes” on the glass windows.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Exactly what the world needs in greater supply: Half-cocked protests by those who don’t fully understand the issue.
Apple follows the tax laws in each country in which the company operates, including France.
SEE ALSO:
Apple sues French tax activists who occupied Paris retail store – January 4, 2018
Protest = OK
Damaging stuff = NOT OK
Apple, send the French parliament the bill. Or just take the damage amount out of your taxes that you pay to them.
Did you read the article? The protesters damaged nothing. They exercised their French right to peacefully assemble outside. And they had a valid point: French taxes are high because corporations like Apple, thanks to illegal tax avoidance schemes, launder their retail sales through tax havens.
What do you want the French court to do, award Apple a cleaning fee?
The US Constitution still allows citizens to assemble, right? Would it be okay if other nations also honor this right, or do you feel it should only be applied in the USA now?
Cleaning fee would be a start. French are crazy and smell bad anyways.
apple follow the tax rules except when they don’t. It’s then the courts who found that the co-conspired with Ireland not to pay full taxes, but lower taxes so they set up in Ireland. Now the bill is due.. OTOH.. these people protesting .. not sure what do they care? none of the money will trickle down to small people regardless.
So is it “in” or “at”.
If “in”, I’d say fuck off — like if they wanted to come into my house to protest.
If they are protesting outside, on public ground, seems okay to me as long as they’re not blocking people.
Now, the STUPIDITY of the protest, that’s another matter…
Like US citizens who are offended and angry that illegal aliens invaded their country. At least these French invaders leave at the end of the business day.
They were outside. MDN is just clickbaiting for the loyal xenophobes to chime in to another mistitled article. Funny how MDN gerrymanders titles to suit its slanted world view and then claims every other media outlet it doesn’t like is “fake news”.
Wake up, social warrior activist, Tim Cook.