Just a few months ago we were telling you that some mobile phone operators in Europe are complaining about the conditions imposed by Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), for the marketing of terminals iPhone, and today we find out that the French authorities are investigating the contracts concluded between the company and the operators. An administrative authority of the French Ministry of Finance is leading the investigation, and following its results, the American company could be fined, at most, certain amounts of money, other punishments being most likely excluded.
PARIS–French authorities are probing Apple Inc.'s contracts with mobile operators in France, according to a person familiar with the matter, the latest move by European governments ramping up pressure on largely US-based tech giants. An administrative authority that falls under the French finance ministry is investigating the terms of contracts between major mobile phone suppliers and French phone operators for the sale of devices like the iPhone, the person said. The inquiry is part of a larger investigation into the overall relationship between major handset makers and some of their biggest clients, the person said.
The investigation is part of a broad movement to verify the contracts that mobile terminal manufacturers have with operators in France, so not only Apple will be verified by the Ministry of Finance. The investigation in France is just one of Apple's European problems, the company also being investigated in France, in two separate cases, by the national antitrust authority, agents of this authority raiding Apple's local offices this summer. Separately from France, the European Commission is investigating the contracts that Apple concluded with mobile operators, so we are talking about complex legal problems for those from Cupertino.
