Search

Antitrust outcomes will usually happen on a country-by-country basis, though there are exceptions. In Europe, for example, it is likely that the European Union will act as a bloc, and that any legislation applying to Apple will apply across all 27 member countries. The worst-case scenario for Apple is for the US government to call for the breakup of the company. For example, it might be ruled that Apple Inc cannot run an App Store while also selling the iPhones on which those apps run. This is not a likely outcome, however. A more likely scenario is a series of smaller changes. For example, Ap

In public, Apple’s stance is an outraged one, arguing that it does not have a dominant position and is doing nothing wrong. Behind closed doors, the company is aware that it either has to change some of its practices, or be forced to do so by law. For example, while publicly declaring that a 30% commission on apps was industry standard, Apple made a massive U-turn by introducing the Small Business Program, with a 15% commission instead. Although touted as applying to the smallest developers, it in fact applies to 98% of them. It would be more accurate to say that the App Store now has a standa

In most jurisdictions around the world, it is illegal for large companies to band together to form agreements or “trusts” to behave in a particular way – for example, to all sell their products for the same high price. Laws designed to outlaw this type of behavior are called antitrust legislation. However, the term is used more generally to refer to laws designed to prevent companies from engaging in any kind of anti-competitive action – that is, do anything that would tend to artificially distort competition within a market. One common myth is that antitrust laws only apply to monopolies. Thi