• Russia Antitrust Body Opens Case Into Possible Price-Fixing Against Apple
    6 replies, posted
[QUOTE] MOSCOW-—Russia’s federal antitrust body has opened a case into possible price-fixing by Apple Inc. and some Russian smartphone retailers, making the Cupertino, Calif., company the latest U.S. tech giant to draw attention from Russian regulators. The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service said it was investigating a claim that Apple and 16 resellers colluded to fix prices of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus on the local market starting in October 2015. The agency said prices had been set at the same level across a majority of retailers and held there for some time. “The FAS believes that such a coincidence could be the result of a coordination of the pricing of Russian resellers by the Apple group of companies,” the agency said in a statement on its website. Andrei Filimonov, the head of the FAS’s anti-cartel unit, told Interfax news agency in February that the unit had begun looking into allegations of iPhone price-fixing. He said that the companies in question could be fined up to 15% of iPhone sales revenue. [/QUOTE] [QUOTE] In a statement to Reuters, Apple denied any price-fixing in Russia, claiming that resellers set their own prices: “Resellers set their own prices for the Apple products they sell in Russia and around the world,” the company said. [/QUOTE] via [URL="http://9to5mac.com/2016/08/08/apple-price-fixing-iphone-6s-russia/"]9to5mac[/URL] and [URL="http://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-antitrust-body-opens-case-into-possible-price-fixing-against-apple-1470663507"]wall street journal[/URL]
Isn't that just called an MSRP?
Does the concept of an MSRP not exist in Russia or am I missing something?
-not corrupt at all-
Isn't the same price for the same phone common across most of if not the entire west??
Internet people have been laughing at this for at least a couple of weeks, [i]who knew that a manufacturer could suggest prices?[/i] The way they placed the blame on Apple screams "political". If anything, they should've asked us to pay more attention to the retailers.
[QUOTE=Map in a box;50854934]-not corrupt at all-[/QUOTE] Oh! Big corporation wants more money, maybe with a bit of something illegal. Never heard of corporations doing anything illegal. [QUOTE=Sir Whoopsalot;50854918]Does the concept of an MSRP not exist in Russia or am I missing something?[/QUOTE] Kinda! If Apple has some unofficial conditions on which they work with the retailers, and these condition include, say, not deviating from MSRP too much, that would not be legal under Russian law; doing that could be classified as a cartel agreement. [QUOTE=Demeschik;50854972]Internet people have been laughing at this for at least a couple of weeks, [i]who knew that a manufacturer could suggest prices?[/i] The way they placed the blame on Apple screams "political". If anything, they should've asked us to pay more attention to the retailers.[/QUOTE] It's the [I]seriousness[/I] of these suggestions that could be illegal. E. g. if Apple stops working with some retailer if it's not following MRSP, they're breaking the law. Anyway, it's an ongoing investigation, they may as well drop the case or switch onto the retailers. Speaking of Russian retailers, [I]these[/I] people could very much be price-fixing. Remember these 'If you find this item cheaper at some other retail place, we'll drop the price -- but only if that place is from a very particular set of [DEL]our cartel partners[/DEL] other retail places" ads? I'm not saying that this is 100% true that Apple/retailers is/are running something like that, but it very much can and would if that means more profits.
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