TelecomLive April-2020

freely determining their commercial policy. "Apple and its two wholesalers agreed not to compete with each other and to prevent distributors from competing with each other, thereby sterilising the wholesale market for Apple products," the watch- dog said in a statement. The two wholesalers, Tech Data and IngramMicro, were fined 76mn and 63mn euros respectively. Apple said it would appeal thewatchdog's ruling. IAMAI says FIR against ShareChat an act of overreach Industry body Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) said that the First Information Report (FIR) filed by the Bengaluru police against social media platform ShareChat and its board of directors for an alleged copyright violation is prima facie of an act overreach of the current provisions of law. Earlier, the Yeshwantpur Police in Bengaluru registered an FIR against ShareChat for alleged copyrights violation based on a complaint from Lahari Recording Company. IAMAI stated that the usual process in such cases of alleged copyright violation is “notice and takedown” mechanism as stipulated under the IT Act (Amended) 2008. "As per the provisions, digital intermediaries must first be given proper notice about any violative content and is expected to act only after receiving such notice," it wrote. The music company, in its complaint, said it owns the audio rights of many movies, but Mohalla Tech, which owns ShareChat, has facilitated users to download its copyrighted musical content without its consent. This has caused monetary loss to the com- pany, the complainant said. IAMAI said it reiterates that it must be borne in mind that ShareChat is an intermediary and thereby under provisions of the safe harbor under Section 79 of the IT Act is not liable either in a civil or criminal case for alleged copyright violations by contents hosted on their platformby third party users of the platform. [ News Bytes ] www.telecomlive.com 11 Telecom LIVE April 2020 Rajeev Suri steps down as Nokia President, CEO After serving for more than a decade as Presi- dent & CEO of Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks, Rajeev Suri has stepped down, paving the way for Pekka Lundmark to wear his shoes in global role. Currently President and CEO of Fortum, a leading energy company based in Espoo, Finland, Mr Lundmark is expected to start in his new role on September 1. Mr Suri will leave his c u r r e n t po s i t i on on August 31, 2020 and continue to serve as an advisor to the Nokia Board until Jan 1, 2021. Lava to raise $90 mn from US fund, to invest in R&D Indian phone-maker Lava International said it that it will raise $90 mn from GEM Global Yield Fund to invest in R&D with the aim of emerging as a handse t marke t leader in the sub-$150 price segment. GEM group will make the investment over the next 36 months through a ' Sh a r e Sub s c r i p t i on Facility' which will allow t he company t o s e l l Amer i can depos i tary receipts to the US fund house in exchange for drawing down available funds. Lava's smartphone assembly plants have been long under-utilised, with the handset along with other Indian players seeing their share taken o v e r i n a m a r k e t swamped by Chinese players such as Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo, besides Korea's Samsung. tively, after which the DoT cleared the deal. The merged telco then appealed to TDSAT for return of guarantees. The t r i buna l i n J anua r y directed DoT to refund the bank guarantees in two months but DoT moved SC against order. OTSC refers to the market price of non- auctioned airwaves, less the entry fee paid at the time of spectrum allot- ment. These charges have been a bone of contention b e t w e e n D o T a n d operators and many of these matters are being battled out in courts. French antitrust regulator fines Apple $1.23 bn France's competition watchdog fined iPhone maker Apple $1.23 bn, saying it was guilty of anti-competitive behav- iour towards its distribu- tion and retail network. The fine, the biggest ever levied by the French antitrust body, comes at a t i me o f h e i g h t e n e d scrutiny onUS tech giants by European regulators, who have been delving into the firms' powerful market position, tax they pay, and how they protect consumers' privacy. In its decision, the French regulator said Apple imposed prices on retail premium resellers so that the prices were a l i g n e d w i t h t h o s e charged by the California firm in its own shops, or on the Internet. The watchdog said Apple's two wholesalers in France fully followed t h e U S c o m p a n y ' s instructions on how to allocate its products to customers, instead of