Inspector Clouseau of the French Yard has raided Apple’s Paris headquarters on behalf of the government competition authority.
French police were in the building for 24 hours seizing documents as part of an ongoing government antitrust investigation.
Investigators are interested in the relationship between Apple and its resellers in France. It was spurred by a premium reseller in France, eBizcuss, which went bankrupt last year.
According to Apple Insider the company filed a complaint against Apple accusing it of unfair competition.
According to the complaint Apple favoured its own retail stores rather than resellers like eBizcuss, which exclusively sold Apple products.
Apple made it difficult for resellers to obtain the latest models of new Apple products, while Jobs’ Mob’s cathedrals to consumerism were packed.
The French competition authority is also interested in Apple’s iOS App Store. Apple increased the minimum selling price for magazines and newspapers last year and the authority is worried that Fruity co is abusing its power for digital downloads as well.
Cupertino should have seen the writing on the wall and that it was suddenly off the French government’s Christmas card list when it was ordered to pay $6.5 million in 2011 taxes for iPad sales.
The mandate came from a French professional association that collects revenue for artists’ copyrighted works.
