Faced with the problems that Apple was facing in India, with few sales of its new devices, the Cupertino-based company decided to launch a program to put reconditioned iPhones on sale, at a much more competitive price than new models. But the companies established in the country for a long time expressed their discomfort to the authorities, authorities that prohibited the sale of this type of device, a device that could compete from you to you with the terminals manufactured by companies in the country. But while in some countries the authorities see it with bad eyes, others however, such as Japan are fighting for Apple to allow local operators to dispose of the stock in the country without having to return it to the company.
According to the report to which Reuters has had access
Japan's Fair Trade Commission (FTC) claims that NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and Softbank Group refused to sell older iPhone models to retailers, thus hurting smaller businesses. Although Apple has not been named in this report, two senior government sources have told Reuters that regulators are also focusing on Apple's deals with the three companies.
Apparently the three main operators in the country cannot sell the terminals to retailers because in the terms of the contract with Apple there is a clause that prevents that these three companies put old devices on the market. Under the contract, Apple requires that surpluses from older models be returned to the company to be shipped to other markets such as Hong Kong.
Reuters has tried to contact Apple for clarification on this information, but the company has only offered information on the number of jobs offered in Japan along with the total amount that the country's developers have obtained through the App Store.
This investigation could be closed quickly if the regulator puts pressure on the country's telephone operators so that they can renegotiate the terms of the contract signed with Apple and where they can dispose of older terminals through pious retailers, without having to return them to the company.