In late 2009, Apple decided to set up its own physical retail outlets, known as Apple Retail Stores (ARSs), in the most important catchment areas. These resellers are either Non-Authorized Resellers (NARs), Apple Authorised Resellers (AARs) or Apple Premium Resellers (APRs).Īlongside these specialist distributors, Apple supplies its products direct to major distributors, or “retailers” such as Fnac, Darty and Boulanger, and to large supermarkets such as Carrefour and Casino. The direct distributors have the highest turnover for the brand’s products. These two wholesalers sell Apple products to “indirect” specialist distributors (or “resellers”), which can buy Apple products only from them, and to “direct” specialist distributors, which can buy either direct from Apple or from the two wholesalers. Since the mid-1990s, Apple had chosen to supply part of the French market through two global electronics wholesalers, the companies Ingram Micro and Tech Data. The Investigation Services used the thousands of documents seized to carry out a detailed analysis of the specialised distribution system set up by Apple in France. This decision to impose fines follows dawn raids at the headquarters of Apple and its wholesalers on 26 and 27 June 2013, the litigation for which ended in December 2017. The first of these practices was a restriction of customers implemented with its two approved wholesalers the second was a vertical agreement on the retail prices of its APR retailers and the third was an abuse of a state of economic dependence at the expense of these retailers. Having received on 12 April 2012 a request for interim measures and a request for a case on the merits from a distributor with APR (Apple Premium Reseller) status, the company, the Autorité de la concurrence has fined the Apple group, consisting of a number of companies, hereinafter Apple, for employing three anticompetitive practices within its distribution network for Apple electronic products, excluding the iPhone, in France.
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