I told you last year that resellers of Apple products have big problems after the company opens a store in their country, and now we see a second reseller who sue the company. If last year a French reseller did this, now it's the turn of a Portuguese reseller who demands 40 million euros in compensation from Apple. More precisely, it seems that Apple would have restricted the number of products reaching the Interlog reseller, imposed a minimum sales limit and reduced the sales commission from 12 to 4% of the product price, and in this way managed to bring that company on the verge of bankruptcy.
Apple arrived in Portugal in 2007 and the following year, usurped the distribution channels that were assembled by Interlog for over 20 years, taking over from our distributors. A source at TB, speaking to Sol, says that on top of restricting the flow of products to third parties, Apple renegotiated the margins that resellers can take on products down to 4 percent from a previous 12 percent. "Apple unilaterally established products, prices and quantities to be sold to large retailers," it said.
The losses caused by Apple by taking these measures convinced the reseller's representatives to file this lawsuit, which would bring them into their accounts no less than 40 million euros, if a court will win their case. Unfortunately, Apple has similar practices in all the countries where it opens online/physical stores, and the same thing will most likely happen in Romania as soon as Apple enters the market.
