From the Wall Street Journal:
The Justice Department is opening a broad antitrust review into whether dominant technology firms are unlawfully stifling competition, adding a new Washington threat for companies such as Facebook Inc., Google, Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc.
The review is geared toward examining the practices of online platforms that dominate internet search, social media and retail services, the department said, confirming the review shortly after The Wall Street Journal reported it.
Not seeing anything specific to Apple here, though they did just testify to Congress last week as part of the big tech gang of 4 (Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple).
Interestingly, the Department of Justice Antitrust Division did put out a press release announcing the review:
The Department of Justice announced today that the Department’s Antitrust Division is reviewing whether and how market-leading online platforms have achieved market power and are engaging in practices that have reduced competition, stifled innovation, or otherwise harmed consumers.
Read the rest of the release here.
I never get why Apple is listed in this stories. Unlike the others, Apple can’t credibly be said to have a near monopoly in something important like search or social media or ecommerce. The iOS App Store is the thing that comes closest but anyone bothered by that, consumer or developer, can opt for Android which has significant market share everywhere.
I’m almost certain thats the angle they’ll go for. But its a stupid angle. App Store has a monopoly over iPhone app distribution. Not a monopoly over the entire app market, because yes Android has substantially more market share, and Android has several app distribution platforms.
Nintendo has a monopoly over Nintendo Switch software distribution. Just like Microsoft and Sony over their respective platforms. You cannot claim monopoly powers because a platform owner has authority over THEIR platform. Monopoly is supposed to be defined by positioning over the entire market.
Precisely. It would be different if iOS had 95% market share… but that’s not the case.
Vote for fuck’s sake.
Anti-trust actions do not require being a monopoly. Kodak lost a huge anti-trust suit in the copier business in the early 90s (when there was a ton of competition) due to their market position and consumer lock in. All of the reasoning in Kodak v. Image Technical Services could equally apply to Apple.