According to a report from Politico, the U.S. Justice Department is preparing to file a sweeping antitrust complaint against Apple, however Evercore ISI analyst Amit Daryanani believes that Apple remains the least at risk from regulatory changes among the “Big Tech” companies.
While the lawsuit would be a “headline risk” that could affect the stock price, investors shouldn’t be too worried, wrote Daryanani. “We think Apple is well positioned to win any potential lawsuit related to the App Store,” he said.
The risks regarding hardware are also relatively small, Daryanani added. Politico reported that the DOJ suit could center around Apple’s dispute with Tile, a tracking-device company whose signature tracking hardware competes against Apple’s AirTags. If the suit does pivot to focusing on Tile’s claims, that would be a positive for Apple, as changes to AirTags would be “relatively immaterial” to the company’s bottom line, Daryanani said.
A DOJ suit focused on App Store practices would be more significant, Daryanani wrote. He said an antitrust suit probably wouldn’t be filed until later this year, once the appeals of the Epic lawsuit have been resolved.
MacDailyNews Take: Again:
If the market is smartphones, Apple does not have a monopoly in smartphones. If you don’t like Apple’s iPhone, buy another phone.
If the market is smartphone operating systems, Apple does not have a monopoly in smartphone operating systems. If you don’t like Apple’s iOS, buy an Android phone.
If the market is App Stores, Apple does not have a monopoly in App Stores. If you don’t like Apple’s App Store, use an Android app store like Google Play.
No monopoly in any case means that antitrust law, when properly adjudicated, does not apply.
I don’t think anybody reasonable is going to come to the conclusion that Apple is a monopoly. Our share is much more modest. We don’t have a dominant position in any market… We are not a monopoly. — Apple CEO Tim Cook, June 2019
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Not true they will whine, Apple has a monopoly in iOS, it’s hardware and App Store. We’ll blow me down with a feather, if I invent a new widget, then I have a monopoly in that (until I get ripped off).
Well (dammed autocorrect)
Not all monopolies are illegal.
Conversely, not all antitrust violations require a monopoly.
It’s about what you do with the market power you have that makes something an antitrust issue or not, and Apple has quite blatantly abused their power to position their own products to users while excluding competitors from the market.
Another example is sign-on with Apple… they used their position in one market to force their brand new product into every app that used one of their competitors SSO products.
I don’t know what you meant with excluded competitors since you didn’t name any, but Sign-on with Apple is not a product, it’s a feature. What’s the market? What’s the business model? How it creates revenue for Apple? Show me the money.
I think even all the halfwit gaslit Republicans here would agree Apple is not a monopoly.
I guess it’s a good thing that a literal monopoly isn’t required to be guilty then.
You don’t need a monopoly to be guilty of antitrust violations.
“Courts do not require a literal monopoly before applying rules for single firm conduct; that term is used as shorthand for a firm with significant and durable market power — that is, the long term ability to raise price or exclude competitors.”
Apple has excluded competitors from reaching a majority of the market.
As long as that hack Lucy Koh isn’t overseeing this one, Apple will be ok. And her lackey Michael Bromwich, he can eat a bag of glass too. They’re both kooks.
iOS is a market unto itself. It’s self contained, and has barriers to entry (and exit).
This market has 3rd party apps. Apps where users and providers have but one channel in which to buy ir sell. The Apple App Store is most definitely a monopoly.
And, of course, as per usual, you have quite the monopoly on stew pid, e-tea.