Malcolm Owen
Apple, along with Google, may face yet another competition probe from regulators in Mexico, after a former telecommunications chief filed a complaint against tech giants on Friday.
The complaint, brought to Mexico's telecoms regulator IFT on Thursday, has Mony de Swaan Addati accusing Apple and Google of "completely inhibiting competition, by abusing their App Store monopoly to force the use of their own payment services for in-app payments.
The complaint, seen by Reuters claims the Google Play Store and Apple's App Store charge between 15% and 20% commission, which in turn forces price inflation.
Addati was previously the head of the telecommunications federation that existed before being replaced by the IFT.
He claims Mexico's competition regulator declined to open an investigation into the matter, therefore prompting a turn toward the IFT over the matter.
"I have full confidence that (the IFT) will investigate and exercise its powers, in line with international best practices, so that these companies stop abusing their market power to the detriment of developers and consumers," said Addati.
If the complaint turns into an investigation, it would be the latest Apple and other tech companies would face, with a number of other regulators around the world also casting an eye on Apple's various activities within the app ecosystem.
For example, in the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority said in June it would investigate Apple and Google's App Store duopoly. In Europe, EU antitrust regulators believe Apple is in violation of competition laws for giving Apple Music an unfair advantage, among other claims.
In August, developers in France launched a class action lawsuit against Apple over App Store fees and policies.
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18 Comments
Why haven’t governments sued retail stores for the markup they charge? Apple offers a service. This service cost money to operate. In addition to operating costs, Apple is a for profit business and aims to make a small profit from said service. End of story.
LOL
The Mexico government wants to take more money?
Just following the EU.
Sheesh. If there's a government, no matter. how well or poorly run, they all want a bite of the Apple.
If you can only lease a house from one of the two tenant companies in the world because they happen to have built the houses, that would never be accepted.
People here mix “the economy” with “hardware/software ecosystem”.
The only hypocrisy is that XBOX/PS5 seem to be skipped in these probes, but it’s easy to see that will change once anti-trust probes into Apple/Google lead to successful outcomes forcing ecosystems to open up stores, payment systems, etc.
It’s NOT a monopoly!!
It takes a legal verdict that finds that it’s a monopoly.
Monopoly means there is no CHOICE.
I am not a lawyer, but I did take a class in business law in college. And I remember I was awake that day they discussed the ATT&T case.