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Russian watchdog does not rule out new case against Apple over price for iPhone 7

Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service will consider the case over iPhone prices fixing that was filed against Apple earlier, on November 7

MOSCOW, September 27. /TASS/. The Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) does not rule out a new case against Apple due to price coordination for iPhone 7, Head of FAS Igor Artemyev told reporters on Tuesday.

"Of course, we need to gather evidence, of course, we have to prove it. Nevertheless, when an antitrust authority already has a case on iPhone 6, why repeat mistakes with iPhone 7? If we see the same problem with iPhone 7, there will be another case. It will present an aggravating circumstance in calculating the fine," he said.

Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service will consider the case over iPhone prices fixing that was filed against Apple earlier, on November 7.

"The case will be considered on November 7," the regulator’s press service told TASS.

The watchdog was to consider the case on September 13 but postponed it in order to get familiar with additional data on it. FAS did not specify what additional information it was going to study.

According to FAS, there are signs of pricing coordination across Russia by iPhone resellers, which has become the reason for setting similar retail prices for those smartphones.

FAS launched an inspection regarding several Russian electronics retailers due to suspicions of price-fixing agreement in sales of the latest iPhone models. Current iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus prices set by retailers are slightly different against each other and those listed in the Apple’s press release dated September 28, 2015, which gives reasons to believe that retailers did not determine iPhone prices independently, FAS press service said.