Apple officially opened an Apple Music studio on the Champs-Elysees in Paris, France, as the tech giant celebrates 40 years since it first started its operations in the country.
Apple Music Studio in Paris
Together with its radio studios in New York, London, Nashville, and Los Angeles, Apple's latest Paris branch will be used for long-form interviews. According to Apple's statement, the company will use the studio for the LE CODE and Hits Francais programs.
Apple France announced that the studio would also soon host artists who would come to have their own radio shows.
The studio will also have a radio studio with a DJ booth and a Space Audio that will serve as a listening booth for artists.
Tim Cook said in a statement that France occupies a special place in his heart.
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Cook said that every time he went to France, he was inspired by artists and developers' welcoming, dynamic, and creative community. He added that he is delighted to celebrate Apple's 40th anniversary in France with their local teams and the customers and communities that they serve.
Speaking to C a Vous, Cook stated that "there is nothing about France that is ordinary." He added he loved the country because it is the heart of art and innovation, and it stands at the intersection of creativity that the company has always aspired to do.
Apple stated that it started with a small sales team in France back in 1981. The company now has 2,700 employees, and it runs a total of 20 Apple Stores in the country.
It was also in France where Jean-Louis Gassee first worked for the tech giant. Gassee later presented the launch of devices like Macintosh Ilfx and started the Newton MessagePad project.
Even though Gassee left Apple in 1990, he still continued to comment on the company in his Note blog.
Apple's Fine in France's Lawsuit
Despite Apple's successful streak in France, it is not without challenges. In 2020, French antitrust authorities ordered Apple to pay a $1.3 billion fine for anti-competitive behavior, according to Apple Insider.
The French competition authority said that the tech giant was guilty of creating cartels within its network and that the company abused the economic dependence of its resellers.
According to CNBC, two of Apple's wholesalers were also fined by the French authorities for agreeing on the said prices. The two wholesalers are Tech Data and Ingram Micro, and they received fines of $88 million and $73 million, respectively.
The French authority said that the penalty was the largest one that was ever handed down in one case.
Isabelle de Silva, the president of the French Competition Authority, said that the tech giant and its two wholesalers agreed not to compete and prevent distributors from competing with each other. This will sterilize the wholesale market for Apple products.
A spokesperson for Apple said that the French Competition Authority's decision is unfair and disheartening.
The lawsuit relates to practices from 10 years ago, and it completely ignored the 30 years of legal precedent that all companies in the country rely on. The new order will cause problems for companies across all industries. Apple filed an appeal.
In 2020, Apple was also sued in France for $27 million for slowing iPhones.
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Written by Sophie Webster
