Apple Bans Retail Stores In China From Selling IPhone 12 To Third Parties

IPhone 12 (dok. Apple)

JAKARTA - Apple has banned its official outlets in China from selling the iPhone-12 to third parties. The policy was carried out to keep prices stable.

Launching from GlobalTimes, Monday, October 26, Apple sent email messages to a number of its retail stores in China that prohibited the sale of its products to online sales platforms such as Pinduoduo, Taobao, and Tmall.

Apple will even impose a fine on outlets caught selling to e-commerce platforms in China for 400,000 yuan, or around Rp.880 million for each unit of product sold.

So far there has been no official comment from Pinduoduo or Apple representatives regarding the ban. This is because Apple's selling price dropped dramatically when it was sold on e-commerce pages in China in recent years.

Pinduoduo, a popular e-commerce platform, is also attracting a sizeable cut as a subsidy in China. They have been offering Apple products well below their official prices since the end of 2018.

Last year the iPhone-11 was sold by Pinduoduo at the same time as its first release at a price 900 yuan cheaper than the official price. Especially for the iPhone-12, consumers in China are still enthusiastic about the high price since it was released earlier this month.

Meanwhile, Taobao and Tmall, which are managed by Alibaba Group, also sell the iPhone-12 at the same price as Apple's official website. Where the iPhone-12 on Tmall is sold at a price of 6,299 yuan to 7,739 yuan (Rp. 13.7 million-Rp. 17 million).

On the other hand, there are no longer long lines in front of Apple's official outlets in Sanlitun, Beijing. But not a few brokers still offer to sell the iPhone-12 at a price 15 percent higher than the official price.