Following the introduction of trade tariffs by the US, China is said to be considering an antitrust investigation into Apple's App Store practices.
The new US trade tariffs ostensibly imposed on China will be paid by US businesses and consumers, not China or any other foreign country. But they mean higher prices for Americans, which will mean a decrease in sales, so China has been announcing retaliatory measures.
According to Bloomberg, those measures may now also include China launching an investigation into Apple's App Store fees and practices. This is despite the country having already investigated the App Store and concluding in May 2024 that Apple was not abusing its market position.
The new probe, as yet not officially announced, is said to involve China's State Administration for Market Regulation. It is to review Apple's policies, specifically concentrating on its 30% commission on in-app purchases — which China previous ruled was in-line with other companies' fees.
It's also said to be planning to investigate Apple's restrictions on using third-party payment services and app stores. Chinese regulators have been in discussions with Apple and app developers since the May 2024 ruling, but as yet neither China nor Apple have confirmed the new investigation.
Nonetheless, Apple's shares were down 3% on the news.
What China has confirmed is that Google will be investigated under the country's anti-monopoly laws. The Chinese Commerce Ministry has separately placed the parent company of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger on its "unreliable entity" list.
As for the impact on US consumers of President Trump's tariffs, Apple has previously been able to get exemptions. However, it did not get these consistently, and it has so far not escaped them this time.
Separately, as tariffs are being applied to goods from different countries in different amounts, certain regions are attempting to position themselves to benefit. India, for instance, has cut key import taxes in order to attract more manufacturing from firms such as Apple.
27 Comments
There is an old proverb, 'we live in interesting times'. I would suggest that now it needs to be updated to say 'we live in insane times'.
In 1933 sociopathic criminals took over the Reich Chancellery and ended up murdering millions of people and ultimately causing the death of 12 Million Germans and a destruction of a great many German cities.
Now we have a similar sort of situation whereby the plans of the current US administration is going to unleash God only knows what on the world. Just consider some of the recent moves: Patel (a certifiable lunatic) taking over the FBI; RFK (a dangerous conspiracy theorist) taking over the Department of Health; Musk moving chess pieces around the government like its a board game.
Now the tariffs are going to ruin Apple's most profitable market outside the US.
I don't see how we don't end up with mass chaos and WWIII.
With incompetent narcissistic billionaires in charge, everyone suffers apart from them.
Who could possibly have foreseen that happening?
This move from China is smart. What was Trump expecting? He'll eventually have to back off.
Meanwhile, unelected billionaire Musk is ravaging through government organizations, which is completely unconstitutional.
Why did Americans choose this joker? He is a serious danger to the world.
I was about to emigrate back to the US, but we cancelled it when the election went sideways. Who wants to live there?
Apple being forced to open up in one way or another (depending on jurisdictions) is basically a given so in this context (although tit-for-tat here) it isn't a surprise.
The state of the US administration right now is quite alarming. Both in internal and external (geopolitical) terms.
Big Tech and all up and downstream players are in for troubled times.
The "trade war" with Canada/Mexico turned out to be nothing more than a publicity stunt. Mexico already had 15,000 troops at the border (Trump wanted 10,000) and Canada had already updated their border security during the last months of the Biden administration. Musk has a lot of business interests in China so he's not going to support a real trade war. Expect another nothing burger in terms of policy changes, similar to Trump's 1st administration.