iPhone
Apple has already released its next-generation smartphones, including the Russian market, to the markets of different countries for several months. So far, the opinion of many fans and opponents of Apple products boils down to the thought: “Expensive.” And for different vendors, the prices for the iPhone are practically the same. But why so – tried to explain the FAS. The regulator spent more than a year investigating the pricing of the Apple iPhone 6S and 6s Plus. Now the FAS employees have submitted a report on their work, [Vedomosti] writes.
The decision of the Federal Antimonopoly Service states that the retail margin for retailers on these phone models at the start of sales was from 4 to 12.5% and from 5 to 12.5% respectively for the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus. In the same decision, the FAS recognized LLC Apple Rus, the Russian “daughter” of Apple, guilty of illegally managing prices on the iPhone.
The investigation began after the regulator noticed that the majority of retailers at the start of sales of the “six” in Russia installed and maintained the same prices: from 56,989 to 56,999 rubles. Then the purchase prices for the model iPhone 6S Plus with 128 GB of memory were from 73 491 to 79 790 rubles. In retail, the same phones sold at a price of 83,989 to 83,999 rubles.
As for the “daughter” of Apple, FAS recognized this company as guilty of illegal price coordination in early March 2016. As it turned out, Apple Rus recommended retailers to set certain prices for the iPhone 5S, 5C, 6 and 6 Plus, 6S and 6S Plus, which was done by partner companies. The cost of “Apple Rus” phones could be coordinated at once for 16 Russian retailers, including MTS, M.video, Beeline, Eldorado, Euroset, Ozon, Re: Store, Svyaznoy, Megafon, Yulmart, Media Markt, Citylink, Refrigerator.ru, DNS, Know-how, Technosila.
The FAS notes that all the above organizations after the start of sales the price of different models of the iPhone differed by no more than 10 rubles. During the period from 2014 to 2016 in Russia, more than 5 million smartphones of the iPhone model of different versions were sold.
The regulator managed to prove the fact of adjusting the price after studying the correspondence of the managers of “Apple Rus” and the companies-retailers. So, on July 22, 2015, a letter with the text “This hit-and-miss” was sent from e-mail with the apple.com domain. In the letter there was an application with a screenshot of the website of this retailer. The page posted an announcement of a drop in prices for the iPhone 6. Plus FAS managed to study another letter, this time – from retail management to Apple. The sender of the letter complained about the pricing of competitors: “In the investment monitoring of competitors’ prices. Again, partners “sham” with prices. At the last meeting you said that you would cut such “pranks” in the bud, since now you have a very effective “ax” in the form of supplies of a new model. Your words are in force? ”
As for retailers, they claim that the iPhone is a product that is sold with a minimum mark-up, usually up to 5%. And for this reason, different retailers can not set prices much lower than those of competitors. Prices differ little, and it really is about tens of rubles. According to Denis Kuskov, General Director of Telecom Daily, it is likely that some retailers, due to low purchase prices and corresponding agreements with manufacturers, have achieved slightly higher margins than their competitors. But in general, retailers earn a little by selling these devices. Retailers told Vedomosti that the contract for the supply of Apple smartphones does not contain any pricing requirements.
