Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), is one of the few (if not the only) mobile phone manufacturing companies that imposes on mobile phone operators the price segment between which they can sell the terminals iPhone. This strategy forces the operators not to market the terminals with very high subsidies or very low prices, but it is not really that legal in most countries. If so far in Europe Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), she was only investigated for these practices, as in Taiwan the government decided to apply the American company a fine of $670.000 for influencing the selling price of iPhone terminals by operators.
TAIPEI—Apple Inc. has been fined 20 million New Taiwan dollars (US$670,000) and ordered to stop interfering with mobile service providers and handset distributors' pricing, Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission said on Wednesday. Apple can appeal but may face a fine of up to NT$50 million if it does not comply, the commission said. Through the email correspondence between Apple and these three telecom companies we discovered that the companies submit their pricing plans to Apple to be approved or confirmed before the products hit the market.
The government's decision is based on documentation received from mobile phone operators, some emails revealing that they had to send their iPhone price list to Apple for approval before the announcement. Practically, Apple completely controls the way iPhones are sold in Taiwan, and this is not to the liking of the authorities, as the company is now forced to pay a significant amount of money for its actions.
Apple has the possibility and will probably appeal against the decision, but if it does not pay the initial amount, it risks being fined another 1.030.000 dollars, so it will be interesting to see what will happen. In the same way, it will be interesting to see if the European authorities will take note of the courage of the Taiwanese and fine Apple in a similar way.
