The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) yesterday fined Apple Asia Ltd NT$20 million (US$666,220) for restricting local telecommunications companies to set their sale prices of iPhones — a move that inhibits competition.
“The commission’s ruling makes Taiwan the first country to fine Apple Inc’s subsidiaries concerning their handset distributors’ pricing, while there is a similar ongoing investigation concerning Apple Inc for impeding competition in Europe,” Fair Trade Commission Vice Chairman Sun Lih-chyun (孫立群) said.
Apple Asia Inc has to stop the practice immediately once the company receives official documentation from the government, otherwise the company may be subject to another fine of NT$100,000 up to NT$50 million, Sun said.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
“If Apple Asia hired local companies to provide services and sell iPhones, the company can set prices for them,” Sun said. “However, based on the contracts between Apple and their handset distributors, the company actually sold its iPhones to local companies, therefore local companies should have the right to set prices themselves.”
According to Sun, Apple Asia violated Article 18 of the Fair Trade Act (公平交易法), which states that when an enterprise supplies goods to its trading counterparts for resale to a third party, the trading counterparts shall “be allowed to decide their resale prices freely.”
The contracts between Apple Asia and Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) and Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) showed that Apple Asia demanded the three companies to send their iPhone pricing plans for its review, Sun said.
In e-mails between high-ranking officials of the companies, the commission also found evidence that Apple Asia required local companies to adjust plans they proposed concerning the prices for iPhones, the subsidies they offer for iPhones with contracts, and the price difference between the iPhone 4S and the iPhone 5, he said.
The contracts between Apple Asia and the three local companies also stipulated that the conditions they set for buying iPhones, such as subsidies these companies offer for buying iPhones with contracts, cannot be lower than those of their competitors, Sun said.
The three local companies also needed to submit their promotion plans for iPhones for the approval and confirmation of Apple Asia, he added.
Sun said the commission investigated three other smartphone makers, HTC Corp (宏達電), Sony Corp and Samsung Electronics Taiwan, but none of them has reached similar contracts with local service providers.
The three companies account for 80 percent of the local market for telecommunication services, Sun said, adding that 90 percent of iPhones sold in Taiwan are from the three companies, with most of the headsets sold with contracts.
Sales of iPhones in Taiwan account for 1 percent of iPhones sold by Apple Inc around the world, Sun said.
The commission established the case in April this year when FTC Chairman Wu Shiow-Ming (吳秀明) was urged by legislators to investigate why all local mobile service providers had set the same prices for iPhones, Sun said.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
RSS