Egypt, where iPhone prices are up to 50% higher than elsewhere in the Middle East, has given Apple Inc 60 days to end what it claims are unfair restrictions on local distributors or face legal action.
The move against Apple and its regional distributor comes just days after the Egyptian Competition Authority accused the Cupertino, California-based iPhone maker of violating local law by preventing its regional distributors from selling to Egyptian distributors – a move that eliminated what it called “intra-brand competition.”
It said Apple also banned parallel imports of Apple products into the Egyptian market.
The decree published in the Official Gazette threatened legal action against Apple and its agent in the Middle East, the UAE-based Arab Business Machine. Calls for comment from ABM were routed through various individuals and voicemail systems before being cut off. A message was left with Apple’s media relations department in London outside business hours.
The competition authority said that while companies had a right to specify sales areas, in Egypt the local market had in effect been isolated from the regional one, sending prices significantly higher than in other Arab nations.
An iPhone Xs Max with 512 gigabytes storage, for example, costs the equivalent of $1,306 in the UAE, while the same phone is listed for the equivalent of $1,983 in Egypt through an authorised Apple reseller.
The Egyptian Competition Authority has accused Apple of banning parallel imports of Apple products into the Egyptian market
