[Law & Tech] Apple to be investigated in Germany for anti-trust issues

On Monday, Germany started an anti-trust investigation against Apple for dominance and anti-competitive practices in the market.

With such probe, Apple becomes 4th in the line of big tech companies currently being investigated for anti-competitive practices in Germany. Amazon, Facebook, and Google already have pending investigation under the new competition law that came into effect in January.

Germany had recently amended its German Competition Act, which now empowers the government to investigate into practices of the big tech companies. The initial stage of the investigation focuses on determining a “cross-market” significance.
The authorities are especially are looking into the ecosystem around Apple, in order to ascertain dominance. An ecosystem, especially spreading across markets is considered as an indication of a position of paramount significance.

The authority has also been reported to state that, “Such positions of power make it very hard for other companies to counter it.”

Furthermore, the authorities stated that, “Based on this first proceeding, the Bundeskartellamt intends to assess in more detail specific practices of Apple in a possible further proceeding. In this regard, the authority has received various complaints relating to potentially anti-competitive practices. These include, among others, an association complaint from the advertising and media industry against Apple restricting user tracking with the introduction of its iOS 14.5 operating system, and a complaint against the exclusive pre-installation of the company’s own applications as a possible type of self-preferencing prohibited under Section 19a GWB.”

While app developers have also complained against the companies own in-app purchase system and the charges associated therewith, such restrictions have also been noted to be similar to the ongoing proceeding against Apple for imposing restrictions on Spotify and promoting their own services.

It was accordingly noted by the authority that as necessary; European Commission and other competition authorities might also be contacted.

Such investigation adds on to the multiple issues related to anti-trust and big tech going on around the world.

Currently, in India, as well Facebook and Whatsapp are facing the Competition Commission of India’s probe since March 2021, regarding their privacy policy.