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.
CALL FOR SUPPORT: President William Lai called on lawmakers across party lines to ensure the livelihood of Taiwanese and that national security is protected President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday called for bipartisan support for Taiwan’s investment in self-defense capabilities at the christening and launch of two coast guard vessels at CSBC Corp, Taiwan’s (台灣國際造船) shipyard in Kaohsiung. The Taipei (台北) is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels, and the Siraya (西拉雅) is the Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) first-ever ocean patrol vessel, the government said. The Taipei is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels with a displacement of about 4,000 tonnes, Lai said. This ship class was ordered as a result of former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) 2018
‘SECRETS’: While saying China would not attack during his presidency, Donald Trump declined to say how Washington would respond if Beijing were to take military action US President Donald Trump said that China would not take military action against Taiwan while he is president, as the Chinese leaders “know the consequences.” Trump made the statement during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday, a few days after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea. “He [Xi] has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘we would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in the interview. However, he repeatedly declined to say exactly how Washington would respond in
WARFARE: All sectors of society should recognize, unite, and collectively resist and condemn Beijing’s cross-border suppression, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said The number of Taiwanese detained because of legal affairs by Chinese authorities has tripled this year, as Beijing intensified its intimidation and division of Taiwanese by combining lawfare and cognitive warfare, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) made the statement in response to questions by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈柏洋) about the government’s response to counter Chinese public opinion warfare, lawfare and psychological warfare. Shen said he is also being investigated by China for promoting “Taiwanese independence.” He was referring to a report published on Tuesday last week by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency,
‘NOT SUBORDINATE’: Only Taiwanese can decide the nation’s future, and people preserving their democratic way of life is not a provocation, President William Lai said Taiwan does not want China’s “one country, two systems,” and must uphold its freedom and democracy as well as resolve to defend itself, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, rejecting Beijing’s latest bid to bring the country under Chinese control. The president made the remarks while attending a commissioning ceremony for Taiwan’s first battalion of M1A2T Abrams tanks in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口). The tanks are made by General Dynamics, a major US defense contractor. China this week said it “absolutely will not” rule out using force over Taiwan, striking a much tougher tone than a series of articles in state media
RSS