According to Reuters and Bloomberg, a French appeals court reduced Apple’s antitrust fine from €1.1 billion to €372 million (about $366 million), calling the original penalty “disproportionate” and saying that the new amount was “sufficient” to deter the company from future bad behavior.
The fine was imposed by the French competition authority Autorité de la Concurrence after Apple was accused of manipulating the retail market for its products.
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According to the authority, which launched its investigation in 2012, Apple agreed not to compete with two of its wholesalers and prohibited some retailers from lowering the prices of its products.
It also accused the company of limiting the number of iPads it gave to certain retailers in comparison to the supply it gave to its own stores.
An unnamed Apple spokesperson told Reuters that the company planned to repeal the fine reduction because it believes it should not have to pay anything because “the decision relates to practices from more than a decade ago.”
According to Autorité spokesperson Virginie Guin, the regulator is also considering an appeal because it wants to “guarantee the dissuasive nature of our penalties, especially when it concerns market players of Apple’s size.”
The EU is pursuing Apple for its App Store policies, as well as its refusal to allow third-party wallets to use the iPhone’s NFC functionality for payments, in addition to France.
Several antitrust cases involving Apple are currently being litigated in the United States, including ones brought by Epic Games and the creator of Cydia, and there are reports that the Department of Justice is considering bringing a case against the tech behemoth as well.
