Australia Opens Antitrust Inquiry Into Apple's App Store

[MacRumors]

Australia is now investigating app store policies as part of yet another antitrust inquiry into Apple and Google (via Gizmodo).

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has announced that it will investigate the competition between the Google Play store and Apple's App Store, access to platforms and consumers, fee structures, data collection, and price transparency. The work is part of an ACCC inquiry spanning five years, which intends to produce reports every six months examining markets for the supply of digital platform services in Australia.

"We want to know more about the market for mobile apps in Australia, including how transparent and effective the market is, for consumers as well as those operating in the market. We will also focus on the extent of competition between the major online app stores, and how they compete for app sales with other app providers," said ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard. "For app developers and suppliers, gaining a spot in one of the major app stores can result in significant sales, while failing to gain access can be a major setback. We are keen to provide greater transparency on how this process works. We are also interested in how data is used and shared in the app ecosystem, including the data available to Google and Apple as a result of their control of the major app stores."

The investigation will examine the experiences that Australians have with Apple and Google's app stores, including consumers, suppliers, and developers. Part of this will involve a public survey and the full report is set to be delivered in March 2021.

In recent months, similar inquiries have taken place in the United States, the European Union, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, and Korea, as big tech companies come under increasing scrutiny for allegedly monopolistic and anti-competitive practices.

Article Link: Australia Opens Antitrust Inquiry Into Apple's App Store

 

[ChrisMoBro]

Build it and they will... sue!

 

[Shadows_lord]

This whole single App store monopolistic policy eventually will not end well for Apple...

 

[cardfan]

Good to hear. Hopefully the US follows through as well.

 

[PickUrPoison]

This whole single App store monopolistic policy eventually will not end well for Apple...

Disagree completely. They’ll be just fine.

 

[cocky jeremy]

This whole single App store monopolistic policy eventually will not end well for Apple...

Breaking news: Company has full control over their own product.

 

[mattspace]

dun dun dun, Apple got Antitrust.
dun dun dun, Apple got Antitrust.
Another nation signs on, another nation signs on,
Apple got Antitrust.
Hey! Who's the next to sue?
Apple got Antitrust.

 

[Anson_431]

I wonder which country is next in line to "investigate" to cash in on Apple lol

 

[Wanted797]

Apple need to get ahead of this fast so they can choose their terms.

in saying that the ACCC is actually pretty smart when it comes to technology rulings.

 

[PickUrPoison]

I wonder which country is next in line to "investigate" to cash in on Apple lol

Hopefully they’ll all agree, whatever happens. There can only be one business model, it can’t change on a country by country basis.

 

[itsmeaustend]

As long as these investigations are fair and conducted by people with real technological knowledge and experience. Otherwise this isn't going to end well for consumers. Please no know-it-all politicians...
[automerge]1599570307[/automerge]

 

[a m u n]

Why in the title only Apple is mentioned? ?

 

[jayducharme]

The reason I find this so frustrating: I'd bet that many of the legislators won't even know exactly what they're investigating, like what happened in the US when many in Congress were asking irrelevant questions of the tech CEOs.

 

[zorox]

at this point why even agree to the terms and services?

If people are going to be petty can will also sue steam / google / playstation / nintendo? While we are at can we sue Facebook because they banned my advertising accounts because of breaching TOS?
Can we also sue google because they banned my Adsense account because of breaching TOS?

and I can go on and on. It's part of the game, if I want to make hate speech thread on macrumors I'll get banned quick for not following tos. Does this give me the right to sue them because I went full retard?

If epic rather looses all rev from apple users then have 70% it's on them.

 

[Ries]

at this point why even agree to the terms and services?

If people are going to be petty can will also sue steam / google / playstation / nintendo? While we are at can we sue Facebook because they banned my advertising accounts because of breaching TOS?
Can we also sue google because they banned my Adsense account because of breaching TOS?

and I can go on and on. It's part of the game, if I want to make hate speech thread on macrumors I'll get banned quick for not following tos. Does this give me the right to sue them because I went full retard?

If epic rather looses all rev from apple users then have 70% it's on them.

Just because you agree to a TOS, doesn't mean it's enforceable/valid/legal. If apple put a:
* Your first born has to slave for 18 years in our Chinese factory

You think that's enforceable?

 

[dmylrea]

Breaking news: Company has full control over their own product.

News Update: Company has full control over other companies products (apps) and their money (in-app purchases).

 

[Appleman3546]

There are so many countries with anti-trust investigations open against the App Store, this is ultimately likely a losing battle for Apple in at least one country. It is clear that Apple is just trying to buy time at this point.

 

[Karllake]

The thing is this is just an inquiry, there’s a lot of discussion around the AppStore, it would be negligent if governments ignored it, the inquiry is simply the governments formal review, for me there’s no implication of wrong doing or that there will be changes, at this point there are several reviews going on in several countries, number of reviews does not equate to anything.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

at this point why even agree to the terms and services?

If people are going to be petty can will also sue steam / google / playstation / nintendo? While we are at can we sue Facebook because they banned my advertising accounts because of breaching TOS?
Can we also sue google because they banned my Adsense account because of breaching TOS?

and I can go on and on. It's part of the game, if I want to make hate speech thread on macrumors I'll get banned quick for not following tos. Does this give me the right to sue them because I went full retard?

If epic rather looses all rev from apple users then have 70% it's on them.

And Epic asking a court to force Apple to allow them back in/on is retarded too. No, Apple said they would drop you if you did 'x'. You did 'x'. You knew you were going to be dropped yet you still did 'x'. Apple, as long as they are 'fair', can do what they want. The 'free market' should hold any penalties if Apple is really that nefarious and evil in what they are doing. Forcing themselves on Apple through the courts is lame. But anyway...

So, how much of this Australia targeting Apple is driven by Rupert Murdoch? Not being from there, does Murdoch really control the Aussie government? Any Aussies on that can set me straight? Thanks...

 

[Stromos]

I am so looking forward to having to run memory hogging antivirus on my phone just like Mac/Windows/Android. Either that or MDM forcing AppStore only anyways so all apps that ditch the AppStore will be unavailable.

Super pumped. All so my fellow Macrumors users can sideload their SNES emulators and Snapchat hax when the walled garden breaks.

Totes excited that I’ll have to worry about anyone in my contacts having malware on their phone sharing my location, messages to them, camera rolls, etc.

 

[true god]

Great news! Gotta have more freedom with apps.

 

[Stromos]

Great news! Gotta have more freedom with apps.

Next let’s ban all encryption! Think of the children!

 

[-BigMac-]

I'm an Australian, and I don't agree with ACCC's move here.
The App Store is Apples product. Governments shouldn't have the power to influence a company's product, let alone dictate the % a company can make off that product (unless there is a safety/security concern for its citizens, which in this case there isn't).

It is each individual developers decision to sign that contract.
They can choose not to get on the App Store.

 

[djphat2000]

Just because you agree to a TOS, doesn't mean it's enforceable/valid/legal. If apple put a:
* Your first born has to slave for 18 years in our Chinese factory

You think that's enforceable?

Possibly. Depends on the country.
However, contracts are enforceable. That is why we have them. If they are unfair. Well, then it will be unfair for thousands of developers world wide. And to be fair. I can't imagine that in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD. Only 1 developer is reading the contract.

 

[Spock]

I am so looking forward to having to run memory hogging antivirus on my phone just like Mac/Windows/Android. Either that or MDM forcing AppStore only anyways so all apps that ditch the AppStore will be unavailable.

Super pumped. All so my fellow Macrumors users can sideload their SNES emulators and Snapchat hax when the walled garden breaks.

Totes excited that I’ll have to worry about anyone in my contacts having malware on their phone sharing my location, messages to them, camera rolls, etc.

If Apple is ever made to open the iPhone to other app stores, and I doubt that will happen, they still have control over the core os. They can restrict API access and make it harder for non Apple App Store applications to do much of anything. Apple uses security as a selling point, they will protect that as much as possible.