Apple India Under Probe For Limiting Its Product Availability And Why It Is Senseless

India’s Competition Commission of India (CCI), which has been constituted to protect the interest of consumers in India and prevent any anti-competitive practice in the market, has ordered a probe on Apple. It states that the Indian subsidiary of the Cupertino-based tech giant is allegedly limiting the availability of its products to a select number of service providers in India.

Explaining the need for a probe, CCI’s Director General said to PTI that they have found prima facie evidence which makes the case “worth investigating further.”

Previously, the commission was asked to probe into Apple India, based on a complaint filed by a customer under section four of the Competition Act, 2002. It asserted that Apple is using its dominant position to curb customer choice by limiting the availability of iPhones and iPads in India to a limited number of service providers, besides its signature stores.

It had further raised objection that iPhones could only be serviced in Apple service centers which were charging high servicing rates, and consumers could only download “software from the i-store” (we assume they mean the App Store).

While I am not an expert in law, there’s something about this complaint which makes me ponder its validity.

In India, iPhones are currently being retailed through telecom operators such as Airtel and Aircel. However these phones are completely unlocked, i.e. the device is not locked to any specific carrier and consumers may choose any network operator after purchasing the phone.

This was the exact reason why Airtel and Aircel launched a reverse subsidy scheme along with the phone, which offered a 100 percent money back opportunity by either discounting the monthly rental on a postpaid account or crediting the user’s prepaid account on a monthly basis with the same amount, over the next two years.

This strategy was created by operators so that it could prevent consumers from jumping onto another network, since India is predominantly a prepaid market (96 percent) with a very high churn rate. So I am not quite sure on what the complainant means by “select number of service providers” in his complaint.

If we come to Apple’s supposed market dominance in India, the company hasn’t disclosed any official sales figures of its iOS devices in India, but it is quite clear that these devices haven’t excited Indian audience as much as the company would have liked. This is partly due to the comparatively high pricing and partly due to late availability — although I should note that Apple is trying to making amends on both fronts lately. I think it is quite safe to say that iOS devices don’t even enjoy a significant market share in India, let alone a dominant one.

Finally, the service center complaint is the strangest of the lot. Apple, like every other electronic company, has designated third party service centers, besides its own Apple centers. So this claim seems baseless to us.

Of course its pretty much common knowledge that if you opt for an unauthorized service center to save couple of bucks, you will run the risk of ruining your phone, let alone voiding the device’s warranty.