South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has said that it investigating “some matters” relating to possible antitrust concerns about Apple — although it has yet to disclose any further details.
At a parliamentary hearing on Tuesday, South Korea’s FTC Chairman Jeong Jae-chan was asked about the potential beef with Apple, but declined to expand any further on exactly why it’s under investigation.
Reports suggest that the FTC is currently reviewing Apple’s contracts with South Korean mobile telecoms carriers: possibly related to Apple’s insistence that carriers buy a certain number of promotional iPhones and share repair costs.
This is just the latest in a series of investigations into Apple’s allegedly unfair activities as a company in South Korea. Back in 2011, Apple was fined by South Korea’s communications regulator for collecting location information without the proper permissions. Apple, for its part, tried an antitrust suit against South Korea’s own Samsung in 2012 — arguing that Samsung had infringed on wireless technology patents owned by Apple — although South Korea cleared Samsung of any wrongdoing.
Today’s news follows a recent case against Apple in which a Chinese court ruled that Apple had stolen its iPhone 6 design from a Chinese smartphone maker — despite said company barely existing.
Source: Reuters
