Apple Korea offered 100 billion won (US$84 million) worth of programs for consumers and mobile phone carriers. (image: Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Sept. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — Apple Korea’s proposal to address concerns about its power abuse practices such as passing advertisement and repair costs to local mobile carriers has been criticized for being insufficient, given the nature of the alleged damages.
Rep. Kim Yeung-shik, a lawmaker from the main opposition People Power Party, claimed on Tuesday that the amount of advertising costs the South Korean unit of U.S. tech giant Apple Inc. has passed on to local mobile phone carriers since 2009 is estimated at between 180-270 billion won (US$154-231 million).
This calculation was made on the basis of the fact that Apple Korea’s annual advertising costs are estimated at between 20 and 30 billion won.
Kim insisted that Apple’s proposal was set excessively low at 100 billion won, and should be increased to at least 180 billion won.
“For Apple, the consent decree can end a legal dispute over its alleged violation of competition law. Given this fact, it’s reasonable to ask Apple to pay more than the benefits it gained through abuse of its power,” Kim said.
Under the consent decree, a company accused of anti-competitive practices is allowed to propose a correction scheme, and if the company and government regulators agree on the proposal, the case is closed without deliberating whether the practices in question violated competition laws.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
