Indian regulators keep pushing antitrust report forward, despite Apple's hold request

AppleInsider

India's antitrust regulators have declined to grant Apple's request for a temporary hold on a report that alleges app developers are compelled to adhere to unfair terms to be on the App Store.

India's CCI rejects Apple's request to halt investigation report

In 2021

, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) began its investigation following a company from a group called "Together We Fight Society," (TWFS) regarding App Store fees and rules. In July 2024, the CCI announced that it had concluded that Apple has "significant influence" over digital products and services.

In August of the same year, the CCI had recalled the investigation as Apple claimed it had disclosed privileged and sensitive information. This information included India sales numbers, which the tech giant does not disclose. It then requested parties return the reports and destroy all copies made before it issued new ones with the sensitive information redacted.

Four months later, the CCI has decided to continue the investigation, citing that it still believes Apple abuses its dominant position in the App Store market.

In response, Apple claimed that TWFS didn't provide reasonable assurance that it had destroyed reports. As a result, Apple asked the CCI "to take action against TWFS for non-compliance with its order" and "to withhold the revised" report, according to an order seen by Reuters.

In response, the CCI said, "Apple's request to hold the investigation report in abeyance was deemed untenable."

Apple has increasingly been in legal and regulatory hot water over its App Store rules and regulations. Many antitrust regulators have alleged that Apple hurts smaller developers by forcing them to adhere to unreasonable restrictions, such as requiring all apps to be distributed exclusively through the App Store.

Apple has often argued opening the iPhone to rival App Stores could create security risks and put customers' data and privacy at risk.

Despite arguing against the concept on a philosophical level, Apple now allows developers in the European Union to distribute apps through alternative app stores. The European Union, however, remains unconvinced that Apple is doing enough.



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danox

Easy solution Tim have your friend the Orange one tell the Indians that all the Indians H1B workers are coming home from America if they keep this up….. After all what are friends for?   

gatorguy

danox said:

Easy solution Tim have your friend the Orange one tell the Indians that all the Indians H1B workers are coming home from America if they keep this up….. After all what are friends for?   

You meant shoot themselves in the foot?

In 2024 alone Apple has requested and received approval for 3800 H1B visas to hire employees coming from India. Roughly 99% of the H1B work visas requested by Apple get the OK from US authorities. 

9secondkox2

India looking for that EU extortion money cash flow. 

mikethemartian

danox said:

Easy solution Tim have your friend the Orange one tell the Indians that all the Indians H1B workers are coming home from America if they keep this up….. After all what are friends for?   

They would probably be happy to have them come back home.

lam92103

But Apple is forcing developers to adhere to unfair terms 

I don't see the problem here

dewme

gatorguy said:

danox said:

Easy solution Tim have your friend the Orange one tell the Indians that all the Indians H1B workers are coming home from America if they keep this up….. After all what are friends for?   

You meant shoot themselves in the foot?

In 2024 alone Apple has requested and received approval for 3800 H1B visas to hire employees coming from India. Roughly 99% of the H1B work visas requested by Apple get the OK from US authorities. 

Very interesting take on the US-India business relationship with respect to talent. I'd bet that H1B visa discussions are one of the recurring topics between Tim Cook and US leaders. I've always struggled to understand why we've never come up with a way to reduce the necessity for H1B visas only because they've been in place for so many years. You would think that the US would have provided incentives to get more US citizens educated and prepared for the needs of US businesses. Likewise, you'd think that countries like India would try to reduce the brain drain that is associated with citizens of their country working abroad. This is especially true when they've been educated using taxpayer funding in one of the better educational systems in the world, one that's arguably better than the US in terms of primary and secondary education.

The real questions are: Why doesn't the US do a better job of preparing its citizens to fill the types of jobs that have a huge influence on the US economy? and Why do countries with excellent educational systems like India  let so much talent slip away when their own needs for that same talent are so dire if they want to raise the standard of living for their own population? 

I suppose it's simply a pragmatic situation that solves current needs, which unfortunately seem to exist forever. I personally think the countries that are allowing talent to go towards supporting wealthier countries are getting the short end of the stick. I've worked with many engineers and scientists over the years and had a number of undergrad/grad professors from countries like India and they are extremely well qualified and work hard. We're lucky to have them on our side and a fair number of them eventually complete the time consuming and challenging gauntlet to obtain US or Canadian citizenship. Whether these situations are a win or a loss is open to debate.