Apple has been hit with a €1.1 billion ($1.23 billion) fine for fixing prices from L’Autorité de la concurrence, France's antitrust watchdog.

As reported by Reuters, the company was accused of working with distributors to help set prices and limit competition in the marketplace.

Tech Data and Ingram Micro were fined €76 million ($84.7 million) and €63 million ($69 million) respectively, for agreeing to charge Apple products at the same price both online and in stores.

The fine is the largest ever sanctioned by a French antitrust official. Apple has already announced that it will appeal the ruling.

"Agreed not to compete"

"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,” said the watchdog in a statement.

Apple responded to the decision by confirming the company's intent to appear the decision saying that "the French competition authority’s decision is disheartening."

PocketGamer.biz has reached out to Apple for comment.

In February, Apple was ordered to pay €25 million ($27.7 million) by a French consumer fraud group after deliberately slowing down a number of iPhone models through software updates.

The tech giant recently closed all of its retail stores worldwide outside of China to help contain the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.