The U.S. Department of Justice has slammed tech giant Apple with a major antitrust lawsuit, accusing the app market’s rules and “monopoly” of illegally stifling competition and stifling innovation.
March 21st complaint A federal court in New Jersey (supported by 16 state attorneys general) found that Apple has monopoly power in the smartphone market and uses it to “lock in both developers and users to its platform. claimed that it was “forcing” developers to use its payment system.
Apple’s App Store Guidelines and Developer Agreement impose a “shaping set of rules and restrictions” that allow the company to “charge higher fees, stifle innovation, and create less secure or quality products.” The Department of Justice argued that “[i]t provides a poor user experience and stifles competitive alternatives.”
This issue may be the reason why many crypto-based apps today offer limited functionality on iOS devices.
“Apple’s anticompetitive conduct not only restricts competition in the smartphone market, but has implications for the entire industry affected by these regulations, including financial services.”
The Justice Department said Apple’s policies forced out alternative payment systems “in an anticompetitive and exclusionary manner.”
He also highlighted Apple’s 30% tax. This is a fee the company charges for apps and in-app payments for “content, products, or services not created by the company.”
Fees and Apple’s payment system are only compatible with fiat currencies, prohibiting the use of cryptocurrencies within apps or making it economically unfeasible for crypto-based apps to offer in-app purchases It has become.
Apple is offering “certain business and public sector customers” the ability to offer their own apps through a custom app store, but iPhone users and developers will not be able to do so as they compete with Big Tech companies’ rates. The use of such alternative app stores is restricted, the Justice Department said.
“Apple often enforces App Store rules arbitrarily and uses technologies that threaten to disrupt, disintermediate, compete with, or erode Apple’s monopoly power. App Store rules and restrictions are frequently used to punish and restrict developers who do
Some non-fungible token (NFT) marketplaces, such as OpenSea, charge a 30% fee to sell NFTs and have disabled the feature in their iOS apps.
Bitcoin (BTC)-compatible social app Damus also had to remove its Bitcoin (BTC) tipping feature after Apple delisted the app. The reason for this was that the Bitcoin was not passed through an in-app payment function that splits the bill.
Web apps (those that are online-based and available through a web browser or outside the App Store) are still under Apple’s control, as Apple requires all iOS web browsers to use the WebKit browser engine. there is.
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The Justice Department also alleged that Apple denied access to competing digital wallets that offered “a wide variety of enhanced features” and prohibited developers from offering their payment services to customers.
An Apple spokesperson told Cointelegraph that the Justice Department’s charges are “false on the facts and the law, and we will vigorously defend ourselves.”
Apple argued that the lawsuit “sets a dangerous precedent” because it could give governments “drastic powers over how people design their technology.”
In the European Union, digital market laws require Apple to offer alternative browser engines, payment facilities, and app stores, but the company still has an approval process in place. Claim New options threaten user privacy and security.
Apple (AAPL) stock fell 4% on the day to about $171, but remained flat in after-hours trading. according to to Google Finance.
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