US states could also investigate Apple & others over antitrust concerns
The US Attorney General William Barr has met with a number of state attorneys general on Thursday to talk about Apple and other major tech firms, discussing the impact of the companies on competition and looking into antitrust motions against the firms.
US Attorney General William Barr recently speaking about encryption
The meeting focused on "big tech companies stifling competition on the internet," a statement from Barr's office advises. "It was a productive meeting and we're considering a range of possible antitrust actions against such companies."
Eight state attorneys are reported by Reuters to have been in attendance, though while they were not identified in the statement, four states have since identified themselves as being represented at the meeting. Representatives from New York, Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana are said to have made it to Thursday's gathering.
The "big tech companies" are, as usual, unidentified by the statement, but are believed to refer to Apple alongside Alphabet, Amazon, and Facebook.
The meeting follows two days after the U.S. Department of Justice announced it will be holding an antitrust review into major technology corporations, and their affect on competition in fields like search, social media, and online retail. There are also separate probes by the US DOJ into Apple and Google's alleged monopolization, but elements may overlap with the new DOJ review.
The Federal Trade Commission has also been working on its own antitrust efforts since February, appointing a task force to monitor the industry.
Representatives from each of the four companies have already spoken to the House Judiciary Committee on the topic, with the House Antitrust Subcommittee investigating "platform gatekeepers" and "dominant firms." The subject of antitrust has also been brought up in the 2020 Presidential race, with a break-up of big firms called for by Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
This is not the only technology-related area Barr has waded into this week. On Tuesday, he waded into the ongoing encryption debate, claiming encryption is "already imposing huge costs on society" by making it hard for law enforcement to investigate crimes, while also calling for tech firms to stop producing "dogmatic pronouncements" against backdoors and to instead produce them.
US Attorney General William Barr recently speaking about encryption
The meeting focused on "big tech companies stifling competition on the internet," a statement from Barr's office advises. "It was a productive meeting and we're considering a range of possible antitrust actions against such companies."
Eight state attorneys are reported by Reuters to have been in attendance, though while they were not identified in the statement, four states have since identified themselves as being represented at the meeting. Representatives from New York, Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana are said to have made it to Thursday's gathering.
The "big tech companies" are, as usual, unidentified by the statement, but are believed to refer to Apple alongside Alphabet, Amazon, and Facebook.
The meeting follows two days after the U.S. Department of Justice announced it will be holding an antitrust review into major technology corporations, and their affect on competition in fields like search, social media, and online retail. There are also separate probes by the US DOJ into Apple and Google's alleged monopolization, but elements may overlap with the new DOJ review.
The Federal Trade Commission has also been working on its own antitrust efforts since February, appointing a task force to monitor the industry.
Representatives from each of the four companies have already spoken to the House Judiciary Committee on the topic, with the House Antitrust Subcommittee investigating "platform gatekeepers" and "dominant firms." The subject of antitrust has also been brought up in the 2020 Presidential race, with a break-up of big firms called for by Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
This is not the only technology-related area Barr has waded into this week. On Tuesday, he waded into the ongoing encryption debate, claiming encryption is "already imposing huge costs on society" by making it hard for law enforcement to investigate crimes, while also calling for tech firms to stop producing "dogmatic pronouncements" against backdoors and to instead produce them.
Comments
Samsung and Huawei will be laughing and perhaps even cheering with champagne the day US Govt enforces anti-trust motions against its own Tech Giants (capable of competing globally).
Seems to me that Barr may be using these antitrust investigations to try and scare tech companies into appeasing the encryption concerns. That’s pretty cheap but unfortunately normal for this type of thing.
And Apple applies how? They have iCloud which is used by their users for their Apple devices.
Why is Apple always lumped in with these? And where's Microsoft?
Are they talking about a combined monopolization of the mobile market? That's a duopoly, not a monopoly. And unless there's collusion, there's no reason Apple should be apart of the that.
Or are they talking about the App Store? There are no laws against a company restricting how software gets distributed and installed on their own hardware devices, running their own operating system.
Even Microsoft is still receiving protections against competition even if there's nothing in writing. Just look at the US government's extremely high use of Microsoft products. When I was working for the government, my upper boss had a directive that I couldn't order Apple products without an excessive amount of justification. I could get a Windows PC of any kind any time I wanted to. Isn't that receiving protections against competition?