I work for a POS company that uses iPads (along other clients) and I’ve not heard of anything like that. I assume it’s people of interest (journalists, or politicians).

Also my company, as well as at least 1 other I know of that uses iPads, don’t sell the iPads to the stores, they replace or buy their iPads directly from Apple. Smaller places handle it all themselves, larger might use MDM but they are buying them at-cost.

I’m not saying everyone does that, just that I’m not aware of it.

Makes sense, I dont recall the name of the vendor my employer was using at the time, only that it was insanely expensive at the time.