Global 'Call to Arms'! Apple faces another € 50 million fine; Investing 850 million US dollars, Samsung Electronics builds factory in Vietnam... What will be the trend of new materials in Southeast Asia

Global 'Call to Arms'! Apple faces another € 50 million fine! Apple: appealed

Apple has caused trouble again!

After the European Union, the United States, South Korea, Japan, India, Russia, and others, the Netherlands has also launched anti-monopoly measures against Apple!

Apple is subject to anti-monopoly measures in the Netherlands and may face fines of up to 50 million euros

According to Caixin, on Friday (December 24th) local time, the highest competition regulator in the Netherlands stated that Apple had violated the country's competition law and ordered the company to modify its App Store payment policy.

According to the decision released by the Dutch Consumer and Market Authority (ACM) on Friday, Apple must adjust the unreasonable conditions applicable to dating app developers in its App Store, allowing them to use other payment systems. Apple is required to implement rectification before January 15th, and if it fails to comply, the company will face a maximum fine of 50 million euros.

According to Caijing Technology, Apple subsequently issued a statement stating that it does not agree with the order issued by the Dutch regulatory agency and has appealed.

Apple claims that it does not have a dominant position in the software distribution market in the Netherlands.

In October of this year, a source familiar with the matter stated that ACM in the Netherlands believed that Apple's requirement for software developers to use its in app payment system was anti competitive and ordered it to make improvements,

It is reported that ACM in the Netherlands conducted an investigation into whether Apple constituted an abuse of market dominance as early as 2019, but later narrowed down the scope. In September of this year, ACM informed Apple of its decision.

According to informed sources at the time, Apple appealed the decision and requested the Rotterdam District Court to issue an injunction to prevent ACM from publishing its ruling during the appeal period. An ACM spokesperson also stated at the time that the matter is under legal review and a decision is expected to be announced later this year.

The European Union, the United States, Japan and South Korea, India, Russia, and Apple are facing a global "call to action"

Since the beginning of this year, the Google and Apple app stores have faced increasing scrutiny globally, with lawmakers, developers, and others calling for regulation from the European Union to the United States and Russia, Japan and South Korea to India.

At the end of April this year, the European Commission accused Apple of setting restrictive rules for its App Store, forcing developers to use Apple's own in app payment system and preventing developers from informing users of other purchasing options.

In June this year, according to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun quoted by CCTV News, the Japanese government will conduct an investigation on the smartphone operating system (OS) market to determine whether there is a situation that hinders fair competition.

In the Japanese smartphone operating system market, Apple and Google have a market share of over 90%. The Japanese government plans to investigate the actual situation by investigating the transactions between Apple and Google and mobile phone manufacturers. According to the survey results, the Japanese government may study and strengthen restrictions such as anti-monopoly laws.

In August of this year, the South Korean parliament passed a bill prohibiting major app store operators such as Google and Apple from forcing software developers to use their payment systems. The bill was officially implemented in September.

On September 10th, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of the Oakland Federal Court in California, who is handling the antitrust case between Epic Games, the developer of the game "Fortnite," and Apple, issued a restraining order against Apple, demanding that Apple not prohibit app developers from providing links or other means of guiding users to choose in app purchasing methods outside of Apple.

On October 27th, the Russian Federal Antitrust Service (FAS) announced that Apple may face operational fines due to its ban on informing App Store app buyers of alternative payment methods and launching an anti-monopoly investigation.

According to a report by China News Service on December 20th, Apple has requested the Indian antitrust regulatory agency to dismiss a case accusing it of abusing its market position in the app market. Apple claims that its market share in South Asian countries is too small to have a dominant position like Google.

Previously, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) was reviewing allegations that Apple had harmed competition by forcing application developers to use its proprietary systems. The accusation states that the App Store can charge up to 30% commission on in app purchases.

Apple denied the allegation in its submission to CCI and emphasized that its market share in India is only 0-5%, while Google holds 90-100%. Apple does not have a dominant position in the Indian market. Without a dominant position, there would be no abuse, "Apple said.

In the coming weeks, CCI will review Apple's response to the allegations and may conduct a broader investigation. If deemed unfounded, the case may be completely dismissed.

Samsung Electronics invests 850 million US dollars to build a factory in Vietnam

According to KBS, South Korean company Samsung Electronics held a board meeting on the 23rd and decided to invest $850 million to install equipment for manufacturing semiconductor chips using Flip chip Ball Grid Array at its production plant in Vietnam.

Inverted chip ball grid array is a connecting material for transmitting electrical signals and power between semiconductor chips and motherboards.

Samsung plans to inject investment funds in stages from now until 2023, with the Vietnamese factory being the main production base, while the factories in Suwon and Busan, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, will focus on core technology development.

Samsung is a leading enterprise in the field of manufacturing inverted chip ball grid arrays for mobile phone system semiconductor chips (without memory function).

Currently, Samsung has six production plants in Vietnam and is building a research and development center. Samsung has invested over 17.7 billion US dollars in Vietnam, currently employs about 110000 people, and exported over 56 billion US dollars in 2020.

Against the severe and complex background of the COVID-19, Samsung still grew by 10% from January to July. The representative of Samsung (Vietnam) stated that if the company's factory in Ho Chi Minh City resumes production as planned, the company can exceed this year's export target.

It is expected that Samsung's R&D center in Hanoi will be put into operation by the end of 2022, and is expected to contribute to the development of Vietnam's industry and information technology. It is expected that about 3000 engineers will work here.

Set 15 records! The Xiaomi 12 screen is exclusively customized by TCL Huaxing

The Xiaomi 12 is about to be released, and its various configurations have been exposed in advance, including a high-precision AMOLED flexible screen exclusively provided by TCL Huaxing. This screen has passed the highly rated A certification from the globally renowned professional screen testing agency, known as the "Oscar of the screen industry", and has also broken 15 "smartphone display records". TCL Huaxing has thus become the only domestic and second global screen manufacturer to pass this certification.