Apple fined for meddling in pricing by Taiwanese service providers

Taiwan's anti-trust regulator Fair Trade Commission has imposed a fine of New Taiwan dollar (NT$) 20 million ($663,332) on iPhone maker Apple Inc for interfering with the pricing of the iPhone by three mobile carriers.

The antitrust agency found that Apple had asked mobile phone operators Chunghwa Telecom, Far Eastone Telecommunications and Taiwan Mobile to submit pricing plans for approval by Apple, which had also recommended changes in the prices, and has now charged the mobile phone maker with violation of sales rules under article 18 of the Taiwan's Fair Trade Act.

According to FTC, Apple's agreements with the mobile phone service providers stipulated that subsidies offered for buying iPhones under the contracts should not be lower than those of their competitors, translations of a Chinese version of the regulator's statement showed.

The service providers can distribute or resell iPhones at their discretion after paying Apple for the rights, the commission noted.

The FTC discovered Apple's involvement in the pricing of their plans from email correspondence between Apple and the three telecom companies.

FTC said the ruling applied to iPhones only and that it has no plans to investigate price interference with iPads

According to Article 18 of Taiwan's Fair Trade Act, ''Where an enterprise supplies goods to its trading counterpart for resale to a third party or such third party makes further resale, the trading counterpart and the third party shall be allowed to decide their sale prices freely; any agreement contrary to this provision shall be void.''

Failure to comply with the Fair Trade Commission's ruling could attract additional fine of up to NT$50 million if it fails to immediately stop the practice of trying to control iPhone prices, according to the reports.

Apple, however, can appeal the ruling, the commission said.