Tokyo — Japanese regulators said on Wednesday that Apple may have breached anti-trust rules by forcing mobile service providers to sell its iPhones cheaply and charge higher monthly fees, denying consumers a fair choice. The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said that the Japanese unit of Apple had forced NTT Docomo, KDDI and SoftBank Group to offer subsidies and sell iPhones at a discount. "Obliging carriers to offer subsidies (for iPhones) could have prevented the carriers from offering lower monthly charges and restricted competition," the FTC said in a statement. The FTC, which began looking into Apple’s sales practices in 2016, did not punish Apple as the US company had agreed to revise its contracts with the carriers, it said. Apple representatives in Japan were not immediately available for comment. The US company accounts for one in every two smartphones sold in Japan, according to MM Research Institute, making Japan one of its most profitable markets. The carriers sold the iPhone...
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