Sad news for Apple fans in South Korea, Apple offices have been raided by regulators ahead of its major launch this year of the premium iPhone X smartphone. A London newspaper has reported that raids preceded investigators visiting Apple headquarters earlier this week asking questions about its business practices.
The raid has raised many eyebrows about South Korea, home to Apple rival Samsung, for trying to bring down the success of the Apple X. Moreover, Korea Fair Trade Commission has often come under criticism for protecting local companies from the multinational American companies and others. Moreover, Apple and Korea Fair Trade have a long history in the past.
In 2015, the year in which Apple created history by grabbing 33% share in the smartphones market in South Korea, the FTC had conducted task force dedicated to exploring whether these foreign firms were damaging the domestic smartphone market.
Roger Kay, president of tech analysis firm Endpoint had accused South Korea of having protectionist agenda. In an article to Forbes, he wrote that "The Korea Fair Trade Commission has pretty much run amok in recent years, slapping spurious charges on foreign companies."
This raid is said to be the longest-running in Apple's contract with carriers in countries.In 2016, South Korea opened an investigation bid to discover the truth behind Apple striking unfair contracts with local phone networks. Yet, it shows that the latest raid is part and parcel of previous year's ongoing probe which was started a few months ago.
It is an alarming news for other companies like Google, Intel, Microsoft and Oracle to launch their new software in the country.
