Antitrust committee demands Apple, Amazon, Facebook & Google internal documents
The House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee has sent letters requesting internal documentation and correspondence from four major tech giants in the US, including Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook.
The letter to Apple begins, "The House Judiciary Committee is investigating competition into digital markets. The focus of this bipartisan investigation is to examine (1) competition problems in digital markets; (2) whether dominant firms are engaging in anti-competitive conduct online; and (3) whether existing antitrust laws, competition policies, and current enforcement levels are adequate to address these issues."
The letter goes on to probe Apple for information about a few different issues. Perhaps one of the most well known, the House plans to investigate Apple's alleged "Sherlocking" of third-party developers. Sherlocking is a practice in which Apple adopts a concept into their products that was previously only available via a third-party developer. Sidecar, for instance, is a popular take on concepts originally developed by third-party developers like Duet Display and Luna Display.
The committee has asked for emails from or to "relevant executives" regarding Apple's crackdown on parental control apps.
The antitrust committee is also asking for information related to how Apple manages the App Store. Information requested includes Apple's policy of third-party payment systems, Apple's revenue-share policy for in-app purchases, and whether or not users can choose non-Apple apps as default apps.
The other tech companies are also facing their own set of investigations.
The probe into Amazon is investigating whether or not Amazon has unfairly given an advantage to its Amazons Basic brands, as well as whether or not Amazon has attempted to create a monopoly on the book retail market.
Alphabet, Google's parent company, faces questions about its search algorithms, and whether or not it's managed to create a monopoly in search and advertising.
Facebook is, once again, being probed about data collection. However, the primary focus of the investigation is to discover whether its acquisition of competitors WhatsApp and Instagram had allowed them to establish unfair advantages in both the instant messaging and image sharing markets.
The ultimate goal is for the committee to establish whether the companies have created an environment that is actively hostile to competitors.
The letter to Apple begins, "The House Judiciary Committee is investigating competition into digital markets. The focus of this bipartisan investigation is to examine (1) competition problems in digital markets; (2) whether dominant firms are engaging in anti-competitive conduct online; and (3) whether existing antitrust laws, competition policies, and current enforcement levels are adequate to address these issues."
The letter goes on to probe Apple for information about a few different issues. Perhaps one of the most well known, the House plans to investigate Apple's alleged "Sherlocking" of third-party developers. Sherlocking is a practice in which Apple adopts a concept into their products that was previously only available via a third-party developer. Sidecar, for instance, is a popular take on concepts originally developed by third-party developers like Duet Display and Luna Display.
The committee has asked for emails from or to "relevant executives" regarding Apple's crackdown on parental control apps.
The antitrust committee is also asking for information related to how Apple manages the App Store. Information requested includes Apple's policy of third-party payment systems, Apple's revenue-share policy for in-app purchases, and whether or not users can choose non-Apple apps as default apps.
The other tech companies are also facing their own set of investigations.
The probe into Amazon is investigating whether or not Amazon has unfairly given an advantage to its Amazons Basic brands, as well as whether or not Amazon has attempted to create a monopoly on the book retail market.
Alphabet, Google's parent company, faces questions about its search algorithms, and whether or not it's managed to create a monopoly in search and advertising.
Facebook is, once again, being probed about data collection. However, the primary focus of the investigation is to discover whether its acquisition of competitors WhatsApp and Instagram had allowed them to establish unfair advantages in both the instant messaging and image sharing markets.
The ultimate goal is for the committee to establish whether the companies have created an environment that is actively hostile to competitors.
Comments
Samsung and Huawei may have the last laugh when the forced-breakup does happen on US tech giants.
Sounds like a Spotify complaint regarding the HomePod...
I especially liked these bits:
They lead off with a couple softballs: "[Submit] the most recent org chart..." "[Submit] a description of each of the products and services listed below [because we can't be bothered to read your website.]
Then it gets more challenging:
"[Submit] all information--whether created by the Company of a third party--regarding the US market share of the Company and each of the Company's competitors in any market in which the Company offers or sells the following products or services [followed by a list of 12 Apple products and technologies]."
"[Submit] all financial statements prepared on an annual or quarterly basis ... since 2016 including profit-and-loss reports for each of the Company's products and services listed below [same list of 12 things]. If the Company does not prepare or maintain financial statements ... for the above-listed products or services ... the Company should submit the revenues, cost, and expenses for each product or service listed and use its best efforts to provide a profit-and-loss statement for each product or service." [Apple's competitors and financial analysts will love this.]
Then they request all communications with a bunch of senior executives for the past decade on dozens of topics.
And in the instructions they clarify that the rules don't apply to them:
"In responding to the request be apprised that ... the Committee does not recognize: any purported non-disclosure privileges associated with the common law including, but not limited to, the deliberative-process privilege, the attorney-client privilege, and attorney work product protections; any purported privileges and protections from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act; or any purported contractual privileges, such as non-disclosure agreements."
This one letter will literally cost Apple a few million dollars.
Meanwhile Ajit Pai is green lighting a huge cell provider merger so his hometown gets 5G and Scott Pruit is underling the EPA so all of the administration oil cronies can make even more profits.
edit - oh only applies to tech ... because...
With a home country government like this, who needs China's IP theft?
Not only that, but Apple itself has an example of using the screen of a device as a secondary screen for another... Target Display Mode on some older iMacs. So, yeah not a very good example.
There is also a need to help them understand that any political invasion of the Apple environment will only be a huge gift to hackers and those sending out ransom ware.
The investigation of Google has already been announced, and far more detailed than this little fishing expedition that has you so worried for Apple. This one is a simple congressional inquiry at this point.
It doesn't always have to involve "whadabout Google". Detour much?
But hey, let’s go after Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook and break them up so Huawei and Samsung can have the smartphone market as well.
There's really no respect for American companies and American IP.
If I was in Congress I'd run out the knockoffs and have them all pay the IP holders if they wanna sell their cheap knockoffs here.
I'd also shut down Android for IP theft until they invent their own sh** and stop piggybacking off Sun and Apple etc.