France’s competition watchdog announced on Monday it has fined Apple 1.1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) for reportedly violating antitrust laws, the biggest antitrust fine it has ever levied.
The French watchdog accuses Apple of exhibiting anti-competitive behavior through its distribution network, including reported abuse of the economic dependence of its resellers. The company plans to appeal.
France’s antitrust competition watchdog will fine Apple over its “distribution and sales network” early next week, a report published Thursday claims.
Based on two sources close to the situation, Reuters says that a decision will be announced Monday.
A music licensing company accuses Apple, Spotify, Google, SoundCloud, and other streaming services of entering into a price-fixing “conspiracy” to keep streaming music prices at anticompetitive levels.
Pro Music Rights (PMR) filed the complaint Monday with the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut. PMR previously filed a lawsuit against Apple in December for allegedly streaming copyrighted music without the necessary permissions.
The Federal Trade Commission wants tech giants, including Apple, to give more information about previous mergers and acquisitions considered too small to report to antitrust regulators.
The move comes as Justice Department, FTC, state attorneys general and the House Judiciary Committee ramp up investigations into big tech. Politicians have accused tech giants of using their size and power to illegally defend market share or move into new areas.
Tile, a startup that makes location-aware tracking tags, will testify against Apple in a congressional antitrust hearing today.
Apple and Tile previously enjoyed a good relationship. Apple sold Tile products in its stores starting in 2015. However, last year, Apple stopped selling Tile products. It also hired away one of its engineers — with all signs pointing to Apple having developed its own rival product.
Most people seem to agree that Apple’s stance on user privacy is a good one. However, U.S. lawmakers suggest it could be a cover for something else: anti-competitive behavior.
According to a new report, some legislators think Apple might be using privacy as a “shield” to get away with behavior that lets it strengthen its own position, while hurting rivals.
Apple told the US Congress that it doesn’t profit from making repairs to iPhones or Macs.
And it defended its practice of only selling genuine Apple parts to companies that have technicians trained to install them.
Apple says it spent unspecified “billions” on its updated Apple Maps app.
Cupertino’s revelation about the Apple Maps expenditures came amid answers to questions from the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, which is currently carrying out antitrust probes into Apple, Google, Amazon and Facebook.
In August, EU antitrust investigators sent a questionnaire to banks and developers of rival payment systems about Apple Pay. They’ve gotten an earful, according to Margrethe Vestager, the EU Competition Commissioner.
European antitrust regulators are asking online retailers if they are contractually obligated to use Apple Pay over rival services.
The European Commission suggests it has information that Apple could have restricted online payments for goods and services using rival payment solutions. This would be in breach of EU antitrust rules.
Spotify is reportedly helping the feds with their antitrust investigation into Apple’s App Store.
U.S. lawmakers asked Spotify to submit information related to an ongoing antitrust investigation into whether Apple engages in anticompetitive behavior. As one of Apple’s biggest critics, Spotify already helped with probes in Europe. However, this is the first news we’ve had of the company assisting investigators in the United States.
Tim Cook is visiting Germany this month, where he attended Munich’s Oktoberfest. In an interview with weekly news magazine Stern, Cook talked local developers, iPhone pricing, and Apple TV+.
So far, so familiar, right? The difference is that Cook’s comments reflect newfound worries about a possible antitrust investigation into Apple.
The U.S. Justice Department is reportedly preparing an antitrust investigation into Facebook. This comes the same month that U.S. attorneys general revealed plans to probe Google for antitrust violations.
No Facebook investigation has been announced yet. But a “person familiar with the matter” says that is going to happen. This would be the fourth recent antitrust probe of Facebook — and the latest example of the growing pushback against tech giants.
House Judiciary Committee leaders want Tim Cook to turn over his emails and other information as part of a possible antitrust investigation.
Cook is one of dozens of executives from Apple, Facebook, Google parent company Alphabet and Amazon named in the request. It follows increased scrutiny of Apple, particularly surrounding the way that it runs the App Store — and possible conflicts of interest that result.
Senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren thinks Apple exerts “too much power” through its operation of the App Store, and uses this to stifle competition.
Warren tweeted the message Tuesday, complete with the hashtag #BreakUpBigTech. That’s probably not great news for Apple!
With the looming shadow of antitrust, plenty of folks are talking about whether or not Apple is abusing its position. Specifically, they claim that Apple has a conflict of interests by running the App Store and also creating its own software tools.
Former Macintosh division boss Jean-Louis Gassée is now wading into the argument. Gassée says that people calling antitrust on Apple haven’t considered the number of jobs Apple has created through the App Store.
Separate groups of US state attorneys general are investigating Facebook and Google for antitrust violations. So far, there has been no word of AGs probing Apple.
However, that doesn’t mean the iPhone maker has escaped probes by other government bodies, both in the US and Europe.
More than half of U.S. state attorneys general are preparing an antitrust investigation into Google.
This will mark a major ramp-up in the battle between U.S. regulators and Silicon Valley tech giants. The investigation is likely to be announced Monday. Other tech giants also may face antitrust scrutiny.
The chairman of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission isn’t opposed to the breakup of America’s tech giants. However, he acknowledges it would be very, very challenging.
“If you have to, you do it,” Joe Simons told Bloomberg. “It’s not ideal because it’s very messy. But if you have to you have to.”
The legal battle between Apple and Qualcomm may be settled. But that hasn’t stopped Qualcomm from bringing up Apple’s name in court.
As part of a hearing to stop the enforcement of an antitrust ruling, Qualcomm used internal Apple documents as evidence. And the U.S. Federal Trade Commission wasn’t too happy about it.
Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim has laid out some of the potential antitrust arguments that could be made against tech giants.
Delrahim’s office is reportedly in charge of investigating Google parent company Alphabet, as well as a potential investigation into Apple.
Qualcomm emerged victorious from its recent battle with Apple. But things look a whole lot less rosy for the company in its antitrust case with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Judge Lucy Koh this week filed her ruling in the FTC’s first round of litigation against Qualcomm. She concluded that Qualcomm has been engaging in anticompetitive business practices.
A lawsuit targeting Apple and the App Store will be allowed to proceed, the U.S. Supreme Court has decided.
The case involves whether or customers technically buy apps from Apple, or whether Apple is a middleman connecting app developers with consumers. The Supreme Court ruled against Apple on Monday by 5 votes to 4.
T-Mobile and Sprint have pushed back the date for completing their proposed controversial merger to July 29. The reason? Because the U.S. Justice Department’s Antitrust Division chief says that he has not yet decided whether or not to approve the deal.
Previously, the deal was supposed to be completed this week. If it takes place, it will combine the no. 3 and no. 4 wireless providers in the United States.
Yesterday, the EU announced a massive $5 billion fine for Google due to its strategy of pushing Google search on Android devices.
However, according to a new op-ed published by Bloomberg, Apple deserves a big fine of its own. Here’s the argument behind that statement.