When Apple said in July at WWDC22 it would launch Apple Pay Later with iOS 16, it effectively said it would enter the short-term loan business, known for “buy now, pay later” plans.
So it’s no big surprise that the Cupertino tech giant — accustomed to regulatory scrutiny in the U.S. and abroad — is now facing it from financial industry regulators.
But what’s somewhat surprising is that regulators are making noise about a host of concerns even before Apple Pay Later comes out.
A letter from progressive members of the U.S. House of Representatives this week urged Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to call for votes soon on a pair of antitrust bills that would rein in the power of tech giants like Apple and Google in an attempt to open up competition from more companies.
Without votes “in the next few weeks,” lawmakers’ upcoming months-long recess could delay action considerably.
With Apple in the antitrust spotlight both abroad and in the U.S., Cupertino is spending more than it ever has before on political lobbying.
And CEO Tim Cook has become one of the most politically active tech executives in the country.
The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority is looking into accusations of “collusion at a very senior level” against Apple and Google.
Online campaign group Marketers for an Open Web made the complaint. It says the two tech behemoths are “not competing head to head,” but rather working together when it comes to search.
The group points to documents uncovered in a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit, including a 2018 internal email in which Apple and Google staffers discussed how they “work as if we are one company.”
Ex-App Store review boss Phil Shoemaker told the congressional antitrust subcommittee that Apple creates “arbitrary” rules which it uses as a “weapon” against competitors. One such example is allowing Apple Arcade, while blocking Xbox Game Pass.
Shoemaker’s testimony appears in the antitrust subcommittee’s 449-page report published this week.
The House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee revealed its recommendations for dealing with Big Tech Monday in a 449-page report, following 16 months of investigation.
While the report has recommendations for Amazon, Facebook and Google parent company Alphabet, it also focuses on Apple — and what needs to change to make Cupertino antitrust-compliant.
The U.S. House of Representatives antitrust report on Big Tech reportedly includes a “thinly veiled call to break up” the tech giants, according to a report by Reuters.
The House antitrust subcommittee could publish its report on Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Alphabet this week. However, while it’s not been published yet, it’s already causing controversy.
Facebook claims Apple stopped it from telling users about the 30% commission that Cupertino takes from sales in a new online events feature.
According to a Reuters report published Friday, Apple said its rules stop developers from showing “irrelevant” information to users.
Apple agreed to halve its App Store fee for Amazon so the company would bring its Prime Video app to iOS and Apple TV, emails reveal (.pdf).
Apple exec Eddy Cue and Amazon boss Jeff Bezos personally negotiated the deal in 2016, it was revealed during Wednesday’s antitrust hearing looking into tech giants’ business practices. They agreed that Apple would get a 15% revenue cut from day one for customers who signed up through the app. Apple normally gets a 30% cut for the first year of an app’s subscription. It then claims a 15% commission for subsequent years.
Popular secure messaging app Telegram filed a formal antitrust complaint with the European Union over App Store practices, the Financial Times reports.
In a complaint addressed to EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager, Telegram’s creators argue that Apple must “allow users to have the opportunity of downloading software outside of the App Store.”
