French antitrust watchdog hits Apple with its biggest fine ever: $1.2 billion

Enlarge / The Apple Park campus stands in this aerial photograph taken above Cupertino in October 2019. (credit: Sam Hall/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Apple has been fined $1.2 billion by a French antitrust watchdog for anticompetitive activities. It is the largest fine ever processed by France's antitrust regulators, and it follows eight years of preparation on the part of the watchdog.

The decision involves not just Apple but two wholesalers named Tech Data and Ingram Micro, which were fined 76 million and 63 million, respectively. A statement from the French regulator cited the following activity as the basis for the fine:

Apple and its two wholesalers agreed not to compete with each other and to prevent distributors from competing with each other, thereby sterilizing the wholesale market for Apple products.

Explaining the record-high fine, the regulator wrote:

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